Home owners stare at Sh16bn losses in ministry land dispute

Investors on a disputed plot in Nairobi’s South B estate are looking at Sh16 billion losses should the Ministry of Agriculture repossess the land and demolish their houses.

Also on the contested plot is a church, Winner’s Chapel, with a seating capacity of 18,000 people that has taken millions of shillings of followers’ money to put up, according to a pastor who requested anonymity.

Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Felix Koskei said the huge investments, which also contain two other residential blocks, were built on land belonging to the veterinary department and was acquired illegally.

Notice to tenants

“Seventy per cent of the 210 acres belonging to the veterinary department was acquired illegally, and we are giving notice to the tenants that the land will be taken back,” announced the minister after touring the area on Friday.

The announcement came as a surprise to residents of Diamond Park, a housing estate estimated to be worth Sh16 billion, at the current market value, and which was sold to more than 600 individuals from 10 years ago.

The director of the Diamond Park Housing Company, Mr Mohammed Khalif Ali, said the firm bought the land from the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) in 2003, and went on to subdivide it to 600 individuals, with some of the buyers buying complete housing units and others purchasing plots and later putting up houses.

“We have all the documents including the original title deed from NSSF and we are ready to present them to court if it comes to that,” he said.

Since Mr Koskei made the announcement, worried tenants have been bombarding the directors of the housing company, to explain the new developments, with the management saying their lawyers would pursue the matter on Monday.

Ethics and Anti-corruption Commission spokesman Yassin Aila said the issue was under investigation, but that he needed to refer to the records to establish whether there were any leads.
“I need to refer to the records before I can speak authoritatively on the issue,” he said.

Following the minister’s announcement, there was hue and cry as residents said they feared losing their lifelong investments.

Some said they took loans to buy the homes and had nowhere else to go.

owning land in kenya is one of the riskiest investment one can have.it would be very unwise to demolish such a big investment to set up an agricultural research centre in the city.do we need one? we can set up one in ukambani and practise the findings there to deal with food security.
infact we have katoloni and kiboko kari but what value have these centres added to ukambani where agric is largely rainfed?

I know this estate very well. These developments are very disturbing.

I guess, Banks are screwed as well? Those who took charge of the houses in exchange for Mortgage?

I really never understand how TWO people (esp Govt related institutions) can claim ownership of same land. Or is this specifically "how it was acquired" kind of Issue?

@mnadii, i also think the Agric cabinet secretary's intention is to scare the home owners. Am sure he also knows demolishing the buildings is wrong. In Kenya, anything though, can happen. I also didnt believe that KAA would demolish 400 houses in nearly 2,000 acres of land but it stil happended.

Kenyans do not know how to present their cases to the highest authority i.e the president, the speaker and the chief justice on such issues.

Its a matter of simple economics. The kenyans , by building the houses on both the kaa and kevivapi/agric lands, have aided the govt in terms of paying taxes, employing kenyans and many more other benefits. They instead of being punished , should be commended for a good job well done, in improving kenya's economy.

@jamplu, well said. KEVEVAPI and JKIA can be allocated the Konza city land for starters. Demolishing people's houses is unreasonable. The people are busy trying to fulfil government's role of providing basic needs eg housing and employment and hence should be encouraged.

Kweli kabisa.

The guys buying houses there are investing in wind

The original owners of nairobi were the maasais to the south/kajiado, kambas to the east/syokimau/kangundo rd and kikuyus to the north west/kiambu/thika.muthaiga/karen/dagoreti. The colonial govt then appropriated the land to themselves then they allocated the land to settlers from Britain. These settlers then sold under the swinnerton plan in the 1950s and the little that remained govt land was appropriated by kenyatta, moi and kibaki govts.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swynnerton_Plan

Ministry of agric has as much rights to the land as the original african tribal owners so they should be pliable to discussions and let the current owners live in peace.

@jamplu..true..almost all upper hill land belonged to kenya railways but is now in the hands of embassies, international corporates and rich individuals. Before railways owned the land, it belonged to native kenyans.

How i wish the same logic was applied to Syokimau

if am not wrong there's number of years that if you allowed a squatter on your land you can't easily evict them and they may assume ownership?? i think it falls under Adverse Possession ...