This archive report was first published on 15 December 2019.
December 15, 2019, marked a new low for Neno Evangelism Centre, Bulbul branch in Ngong, Kajiado County, as the church found itself at the centre of a land grabbing scandal.
At the heart of the controversy is Ms Susan Ngina Kanyila, an elderly woman who has lived on the land since 1976. According to her, the church, through Mr Joseph Muriithi Mborothi, illegally encroached on her quarter-acre piece of land and started building a church structure in 2013.
Ms Ngina has accused Neno Evangelism Centre of dividing her land and building a church where services continue despite the National Land Commission declaring that the land was given to her by the government in the 1970s after living in the area as a landless citizen.
The National Land Commission ordered Neno Evangelism Centre to stop any development at the property in January 2016, an order which Ms Ngina says fell on deaf ears.
She has also accused her neighbour, county lands boss Joseph Muriithi Mborothi, of conspiring with the Neno Evangelism Centre to rob her of the land.
Ms Ngina fears for her life, stating that even the area chief is out to get her land. “One day, the chief mocked me by telling me that I will never win the battle over the piece of land against the church because I am a poor woman,” she says.
