The National Land Commission (NLC) has downplayed claims that it has given a prime land in Donholm
to squatters.
In Gazette Notice No.1547 dated February 15, 2019, the Commission said it had never determined ownership of the contested property L.R.No.Nairobi Block 82 located in the prime Donholm are of Nairobi.“
NLC said it has not/never rendered any determination under section 14 of the NLC Act in relation to Nairobi Block 82/7375, Nairobi Block 82/7333 or the titles thereof notice further clarifies that the matter of contested ownership of the property is pending determination by the Court before Justice Kossi Bor and therefore NLC cannot make a determination, as it would be sub judice.
The commission was to clarify land ownership on the contested prime land parcels in the Donholm area of Nairobi that have been plagued by protracted litigation and repeated encroachment by squatters claiming ownership and demanding settlement.
The Gazette notice affirms the position it had earlier taken in April 2018 when it disowned ‘’NLC resolutions’’ purporting to award prime parcels of land to self-help groups in Nairobi.
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NLC had dismissed the letters, on whose strength two self-help groups were laying claim to land ownership, as forgeries.
Latest gazette notice comes as a huge blow to a group of squatters going by the name “Sowesava Self-Help Group” who have long held that NLC issued a determination that allocated them the land.
The notice also renders the ‘ownership’ documents that the self-help group has been circulating to various authorities and in court cases as fakes and forgeries, which they are unlikely to use again in the petitions and public protests they occasionally organize with the hope of attracting political interventions to support their pursuit of the property.
A more recent case that comes to mind was the protracted 10-year ownership tussle pitting a group that is linked to developers of the Greenspan estate and a self-help group named Alfajiri Self Help Group over prime land located in Donholm Nairobi worth over Sh1 billion.
Delivering her judgment in this dispute ELC Case No.313 of 2008, Justice Kossy Bor of the Environment and Land Court ruled that the Sauti Sacco Society Limited was the owner of the parcel of land 82/4264, a block from which a portion was hived and sold to Greenspan Developers Limited. The court further ruled that the suit property was private land and ceased to exist when it was subdivided into two blocks, noting that Alfajiri Self Help Group cannot lay claim to private property it never owned.
In law, self-help groups do not even have the legal capacity to own land.
Gidjoy investments limited claims it's the true owner of the land.
