• The association wants the land resurveyed as ordered by the National Lands Commission in March last year.
• It also wants to be fully involved in an agreed settlement of the conflict surrounding the renewal of the leases.
Image: Alice Waithera
The Kandara Residents Association has filed a new petition seeking to have the land occupied by Delmonte fruits processing company resurveyed.
The association’s chairperson Phillip Kamau filed the petition at the Kerugoya High Court last month when the Murang’a High Court was in recess. The case was later transferred to Murang’a.
Kamau said the association wants to be included in the identification of used, unused and the public land occupied by the company.
He said five parcels of land, LR Nos. 10741, 10862, 11146, 11312 and 2953 are all public land yet they are under the company.
Kamau also wants to know how the company acquired plot LR NO. 9213/1 that was previously owned by Sasa Coffee, which was dissolved in 1969 and the land surrendered to the government in 1973.
In an agreement that the company signed in 1973 while getting the leasehold, Kamau said the company only claimed 22,500 acres. But Lands Cabinet Secretary Faridah Karoney told Parliament on May 6, that the government was considering renewing 32,240 acres for the company.
“Where are the extra acres coming from? Why does the company need more land than it uses?” he wondered.
Kamau said the President has called for a win-win resolution of the protracted battle for the renewal of the company’s leases.
US Ambassador Kyle McCarter also called for dialogue while issuing foodstuffs to families in partnership with Delmonte Kenya at Kihiu Mwiri area on July 12.
“We want to be included in an agreed and amicable settlement,” Kamau said.
In an affidavit, Kamau said he filed the fresh petition after discovering that the company has started the process of renewing its leases with the support of both Kiambu and Murang’a county governments.
This is in total disregard to a gazette notice published by the National Lands Commission last year calling for a resurvey of the company’s land by the director of survey.
Any extra land found under the company’s possession was to be subdivided between the association and the two county governments on a 70:30 ratio.
The resurvey was to be conducted within 60 days from March 2019. The association wants all parties to appoint independent surveyors to conduct the exercise.
Kamau further wondered how the company transferred part of its land to Ananas Holdings Ltd which subsequently built on a parcel of its land and is seeking interested buyers.
The chairman wants the Lands principal secretary and director of survey who are named as the first and second interested parties enjoined in the suit.
The association had filed another petition in the Environment and Lands court seeking to have the company cede 6,500 acres of land. It claimed the land was forcibly taken from their forefathers.
The petition was however dismissed, with Justice Grace Kemei saying the matter was already before the National Lands Commission for determination.