• Company has lodged complaints over the invasion of its land with security officers who promised to stop it.
• Some individuals have established stone-cutting machines.
Image: ALICE WAITHERA
@Alicewangechi
Be on the lookout for people claiming to sell land belonging to the pineapple and global fruits processor Del Monte.
That's the warning from Mithanga/Kakuzi deputy county commissioner Angela Makau.
She said the company has complained some individuals and groups are invading their land and illegally subdividing parcels that are then being sold to unsuspecting Kenyans.
The swindlers are charging Sh5,000 to register their land buying companies and Sh50,000 for a share of a 50x100 parcel of the Del Monte land.
Others have established a quarry and have started mining stone.
Makau expressed concerns that illegal groups are taking advantage of the ongoing lease renewal process for the company’s land to intrude into its property.
She said numerous buyers are being brought by the land buying companies from as far as Kiambu and Machakos counties, lured by the prospect of owning land in the prime area.
“The subcounty security team has visited the invaded land and confirmed that some individuals are quarrying and have even installed stone cutting machines,” she said.
She said the equipment illegally found on the property will be confiscated to stop the intrusion, urging land buyers not to be lured into spending their hard-earned money on the land.
The company, she noted, has acquired court orders prohibiting the illegal invasion of its land.
Delmonte Company is on more than 22,000 acres of land, of which more than 18,000 are in Murang’a county.
The company has however hived off parts of its land and ceded them to Murang’a and Kiambu county governments as part of its lease renewal agreements.
Murang’a has received 1,400 acres from the company that the county government plans to use for an affordable housing project and construction of social amenities such as a Level 5 hospital.
The county government last year issued a notice to locals not to be swindled into paying any money to individuals who were purporting to sell parts of the land ceded to it.
“We will partner with other relevant security stakeholders to ensure the invasion of the private land is stemmed,” Makau said.
She also appealed to the National Land Commission and other agencies involved in the renewal of the company’s land lease to publicise how far the process has gone for the public.
(Edited by V. Graham)