Activist Okiya Omtatah has filed a petition at the Environment and Lands Court in Nakuru, protesting against alleged grabbing of 400-hectare ( 988-acre) Kalro farm in Naivasha.
He accused the Isahakiah Self Help Group of being fraudsters used by grabbers to steal land from the public and government institutions.
“I am aggrieved that land set aside since colonial times for research has been grabbed by four out of the seven respondents,” Omtatah says in the petition.
“The matter was recently aggravated by President Uhuru Kenyatta when he irregularly purported to have allocated the land to group, which is being used by land grabbers in government and elsewhere.”
The President denied ever allocating the land, after a meeting at State House last year.
Accuses PS
Omtatah has listed as respondents the Lands ministry, Housing and Physical Planning ministry, National Land Commission and the Attorney General.
He also accuses former National Treasury PS and Lands PS in the Kanu era Johnson Hungu of grabbing 28 hectare ( 69 acres )of Ol Magogo Farm.
He says Kalro will lose Sh20 billion if urgent measures are not taken to ward off grabbers.
This jeopardises plans to build a Sh2.5 billion ultra-modern research centre for East Africa in Naivasha by the World Bank, Omtatah says.
The case will be mentioned on March 16.