This archive report was first published on 4 October 2021.
On October 4, 2021, the Lands ministry denied Murang’a residents 7,447 acres of State land held by multinational fruit juice processor Del Monte.
Lands Cabinet Secretary Farida Karoney now claims there is no excess land to allocate, citing that LR No 12203/1/2, whose lease expired in July 2019, had been allocated to the Kiambu County.
Parliament had ordered the Director of Survey to resurvey the entire land Del Monte Kenya Limited holds.
The National Land Commission had ordered that any excess land be shared between the locals and the two counties on a 70-30 percent basis in a Legal Notice No 1995, dated March 1, 2021.
However, the Committee on Implementation of House Resolutions accused Ms Karoney of usurping the powers of the NLC by proposing that the land be given to the county government instead of residents who had petitioned for allocation of the same.
“The Cabinet secretary is usurping the powers of NLC, which is unconstitutional,” Moitalel ole Kenta, who chairs the committee, said.
The two companies, Sassa Coffee and Rappit B. Limited, had in 1973 surrendered LR No 12158 measuring 2,900 acres in Murang’a County that is registered in the name of Del Monte Kenya.
NLC chairperson Gershom Otachi had earlier told the committee that the parcels of land were originally owned by Chui Estates Limited up to 1973 when, through a memorandum of registration transfer of lands and at a consideration of Sh2 million, they were transferred to the government of Kenya.
