This archive report was first published on 13 October 2019.
Land Conflicts Frustrate Investments in Nairobi's Eastlands ¶
President Uhuru Kenyatta's order to conclude the titling process for land-buying companies in Nairobi's Eastlands has been met with resistance from cartels operating in the region.
These cartels, which have been operating in the area for close to two decades, have been gathering local villagers to invade undeveloped spaces and pose as needy squatters who demand allocation of the land by the Nairobi City Council.
As a result, numerous self-help groups in the larger Embakasi area hold 'certificates of allocation' of land purportedly issued by the National Land Commission, which has previously been more pronounced at the Coast region.
However, the National Land Commission has dismissed these 'ownership' documents as forgeries, and the recent escalation in land prices in Nairobi has only added fuel to the activities of these cartels.
Just last week, a former senior chief of Kayole and chairman of a group called Sowesava Self-help Group, Hoops Shihemi Alexander, was charged in court for fraudulently preparing title documents in an attempt to illegally acquire property valued at Sh944 million situated in Donholm belonging to Gidjoy Investments.
Other officials of the group - Patrobas Awino, Peter Muiruri, and Peter Kanika - had already been arraigned on similar offences and remanded at Industrial Area Remand Prison.
Property owners in Nairobi's Eastlands have had to contend with unending waves of invasions by squatters, usually mobilised by well-heeled wheeler-dealers.
Justice Kossy Bor of the Environment and Land Court ruled that the Sauti Sacco Society Limited was the owner of a parcel of land in Donholm, a block from which a portion was hived off and sold to Greenspan Developers Limited.
