• Several government vehicles used by the officials were destroyed by the residents who pelted stones at them, broke windows.
• The government has allocated 50 acres for Ruai evictees' resettlement on the 1,200 disputed land.
There was drama on Saturday as former Machakos Senator Johnson Muthama stormed a police station in Matungulu over the subdivision of the KBC land for the resettlement of more than 50 families evicted from Ruai.
The government has called off the subdivision of the controversial KBC land in Matungulu, Machakos county.
The exercise meant for the resettlement of more than 50 families evicted from Ruai was indefinitely suspended on Saturday evening after tens of locals attacked Ministry of Lands officials in Nairobi and destroyed their official cars. They included surveyors, physical planners and a senior director at the Lands Survey of Kenya among others.
Machakos county police commander John Muiruri said the exercise had been called off following directives from senior government officials.
Sources revealed to the Star that the government had allocated 50 out of the 1,200 parcels to settle the squatters whose houses were demolished on the Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company land in Ruai.
Muiruri withdrew all police officers who had been deployed as re-enforcement for KBC police station in Matungulu subcounty during the ongoing land survey and subdivision.
“We have suspended the ongoing exercise following directives from the county. I have, therefore, withdrawn all police officers involved in the operations,” Muiruri told the Star as he left the KBC police station on Saturday evening.
Police had been mobilised from all police stations and patrols within Matungulu division to give re-enforcement for the headquarters at KBC police station that sits on 15 acres of the controversial land.
Muiruri said he had personally stepped in to support subcounty police commander Kipkemoi Kirui after he was overwhelmed by the skirmishes when residents attacked both police officers deployed to provide security for ministry officials.
He, however, downplayed knowing why the subdivisions were being conducted on the land which has had a long court battle between the government through KBC and Koma Ranching Society.
The police boss joined Kirui on the land after he was informed that the surveyors were attacked and ordered out of the land by former Machakos Senator Johnson Muthama.
Muiruri ordered everybody including the government officials out of the land and directed them to the KBC police station.
The surveyors were later escorted back to the land by heavily armed police officers after the entire 1,200 acres were sealed off from members of the public.
Muthama refused to leave the station after he was ordered to do so by the county police boss.
He wanted the government officials involved in the subdivisions to leave "lest he returns to the same land with his troop".
The former senator accused the government of publicly stealing in broad daylight, land belonging to the Kamba community. Attempts by police officers to eject him from the station were futile — he stayed at the station from 11am to 5pm when the exercise was called off and everyone moved out of the land.
But some residents sneaked back into the land and attacked the officials for the second time at around 4.30 pm. They were escorted back to KBC police station where their officials recorded statements on the incident and left.
“I am here with many leaders after getting information that since two weeks ago, there was a gang of people who have been coming from Nairobi with claims that they have been permitted to come and survey this land at Komarock in Matungulu subcounty,” Muthama said.
He said they had been in court with the government over the land’s ownership since 2011 and had obtained a status quo order in 2017, "hence the government was in court contempt".
But Muiruri said there was a new court order terming the one referred to by the politician as outdated. He advised Muthama to get back to court and obtain another order.
“We have heard that there are people who have been given land here. When I got here, I asked the OCPD for a letter authorising these people to resettle here but there was none. They have no documentation, these are real thieves. It’s a shame for our people to be looked down upon like this,” Muthama said.
He left the station after the operations were called off and police were withdrawn but vowed not to relent until the land was allocated to locals and not anyone from outside the county.
Edited by R.Wamochie