The row between Gikumari villagers in Ruiru, Kiambu County and a shadowy private developer over 23,000 acres of land has intensified after the irate locals chased away a grader who was putting up a road in the area.
The road leading to Juja Farm was being built under the guard of heavily armed police officers who were overpowered by the residents after repulsing the private grader that had no number plates.
Gikumari residents
Irked residents who lit tyres and barricaded the road after chasing away the adamant contractor expressed fury over plans to evict them from their parcels of land they claim to have bought decades ago.
The land where they have put up residential homes, businesses including schools and churches has been at the centre of controversy after an unknown person claimed it belonged to him.
The residents who fear eviction claimed to have legally bought the land and acquired the requisite title deeds only for a private developer to emerge, years after they bought to claim the land.
The charged locals claimed that the rogue land grabbers were out to disinherit them through threats and forceful eviction.
They pointed fingers at high-profile individuals who they suspect are behind the plot to forcefully evict them to put up palatial estates on their land.
According to them, trouble began when the reported grabbers started tarmacking roads within the village under heavy police guards before a public participation forum for the project was conducted.
They claim that the developer has already threatened that all the locals in the village will be evicted while those with undeveloped land should not develop them, sparking fear among them.
Led by Anastacia Nyambura who bought the land in the area after eviction from Rift Valley, the residents insisted that the land on which their residential homes have been built is legitimately theirs and have all the requisite documents to back their claim including title deeds issued to them by the government in 1980’s.
"I will not be evicted from a land I bought years ago. I have even buried my husband there. The shadowy claimant should know we acquired title deeds from the government and to say they are fake, that is an insult to us," said Nyambura.
They lamented that assertions that they will be forcefully evicted have already sparked fear and psychological trauma among them as they have nowhere else to call home.
"We don't know the person who claims to be the owner of the land on which we have built our houses. We have all the legal documents to back our claim," Pauline Wambui said.
Adamant that no road would be put up in the area or will any eviction be carried out, the locals urged Mt Kenya leaders to gang up and protect them.
They at the same time urged the government to keenly monitor the situation in the village to avert confrontations between them, the police and the private contractor doing the road.
