Why there is No end to Sauti Sacco Donholm land tussle.

The tussle over a piece of land in Donholm pitting the Sauti Savings and Credit Co-operative Society against two self-help groups, the Savannah and Alfajiri, has persistently refused to cease from the courts and public as each put claim to its ownership. The Sacco with a general membership of 600 claims legitimacy of the lucratively placed land dubbed Donholm Housing Project as the other two also lay claim to the property. The land claimed is LR Nairobi/Block 82/4264 and not LR Nairobi/Block 82/4262 that is said to be allocated to the Alfajiri group. The matter under civil suit No 239 of 2002 came before Justice GV Odunga in 2013 and labeled as case No 291 of 2013 before Justice Weldon Korir that has since been a subject of hot contention with the self-help group hiring hoods of gangs to keep off any interference by the Sauti challengers. Justice Odunga then issued a mandamus compelling then Nairobi provincial commissioner and Buruburu OCPD to take all possible measures to safeguard the applicant’s (Sauti Sacco) rights, title and interest in land parcel No NBI/82/4264 that included eviction of trespassers and strangers occupying the same without valid or lawful rights, title or interest in the property. The applicant has complained that despite the case still being in the court, Alfajiri Self Help Group has continued to violate the directive by intruding onto the land, subdividing it at the protection of the local Buruburu and Kayole police. Records indicate Sauti Sacco is in receipt of valid land rates paid regularly to the former city council and current Nairobi county. They had secured a loan for development from a local bank that has been fully repaid and receipted. Justice Korir noted a judicial review court was not an appropriate forum for the case noting that the matter stands better handled by the court that issued the earlier orders. As the battle continues, the Sauti acting manager Otuoma Estella warned the public against entering into any transaction on the land. Members of the public have been warned to be wary groups of land dealers purporting to be selling land in Donholm. Yet a survey by this writer revealed that a private developer has been ferrying construction materials to the site and is said to have bought the land from the group that purports to own the land. They are under police protection and a gang of goons hovering around the piece of land. The Sauti Sacco chairman Elly Ndwiga notes that members of the Donholm Housing Project have and are still anxiously waiting for the conclusion of the now seven-year old court case to enable them develop their plots. Records available to the Weekly Citizen show that Sauti Sacco bought 823 acres of land from Continental Developers in 1994 at a cost of Sh108 million.