More than 300 elderly members of a dance troupe want President Uhuru Kenyatta to help them get titles for 80 acres on the outskirts of Eldoret.
The land is valued at Sh800 million, members of the former Wareng/Nyakinyua troupe said. However, much of it has been grabbed and palatial homes are being built, they said.
They said the land was given to them more than 50 years ago by Uhuru's father but has been grabbed by influential people due to lack of titles. They hold the mother deed.
Pauline Mwangi, 70, asked the President to swiftly issue them with titles before he leaves office in August. Then they can subdivide the land among individual members.
“We are appealing to President Kenyatta to issue us with title deeds so our children can have a secure future long after we are gone,” widow Mwangi said through her tears.
She said they have been unable to access their property for which they only have a mother title deed. She and others said influential personalities claim to own vast parts of the land.
The new 'owners', Mwangi said, took advantage of the 2007-08 post-election violence to grab their property after they fled for their lives.
Speaking at Timboroa Trading Centre along the Eldoret-Nakuru highway where they live as squatters, they said they cannot bury their relatives on he land due to the feud.
Member Peter Mathu said most of the members have died.
“Our prayer to President Kenyatta is to help expedite issuance of title deeds to the surviving members of before his term in office ends,” pleaded the frail Mathu,76.
Mathu said some people who claim ownership have started building palatial homes on the property and said they might sell it to unsuspecting buyers.
Mwangi Kamau, 83, said the government was moving very slowly, not addressing their plight.
“Why has the government has not seen fit to include us in the issuance of over one million title deeds that was launched by the head of state early this year? Kamau asked.
The President has launched the programme of issuing one million title deeds to Nairobi residents.
He said the National Titling Programme was one of the pillars of the Jubilee administration, and that he wants to restore the dignity of Kenyan families who have struggled to get titles.
“Dignity comes with ownership. We pledged this in February 2013 when we launched the Jubilee manifesto and for far too long Kenyans have been talking about the land question but what we needed was the land answer,” he said.
The President said in 2013 that 67 per cent of Kenyan land had not been adjudicated and was without title. Those living on community land suffered as they could not put the land to commercial use.
Nine years into his leadership, he said most questions on land have been answered by the introduction of the National Tilting Programme, which enables easier and faster processing and issuance of titles.
(Edited by V. Graham)
