184 residents of Dupoto/Dafur Settlement Welfare have moved to court seeking to have a compensation of the part of Sh2 billion compensation for land acquired for the construction of the Standard Gauge Railway.
In an affidavit sworn by Korinke ole Gisa, they say that they were a resident of L.R. No. 2935 measuring 168 acres.
“74 acres were acquired by the Kenya Railways Corporation for the construction of the Standard Gauge Railway, we occupied the remainder being approximately 94 acres, “they added.
Korinke says that he has been authorized by the aggrieved members of Dupoto/Dafur Settlement Welfare Scheme to swear an affidavit for them.
“Although we heard about the sale of 55 acres of the land, we never heard of the remainder of the land, comprising 38 acres, “he added.
THAT the members have been deprived of property they were lawfully allotted and a lease granted to them, hence a violation of their rights to property ownership.
They claim that no explanation or information has been tendered to the members explaining the nature of the transaction and agreement between Kenya Railways and the Welfare Scheme.
They added that the removal of the firm of Letangule & Co. Advocates and the introduction of another firm of advocates at the point of payment of funds raises several questions which we seek to address in this petition.
It is said that the land was allocated to Nairobi City Council via a letter of allotment Ref. 51776 dated 8th September, 1958 for a period of 99 years beginning 1 st June, 1958. The land was reserved for development of Embakasi Township for residential purposes.
“The National Land Commission in its letters dated 16th September 2015, 18th September 2015 and 2nd November, 2015, 19th April, 2016, and after the public hearing between 8th -10th June, 2015 at NHIF Auditorium concluded that Dupoto/Dafur Settlement Welfare Scheme members be compensated subject to a Survey and verification of the acreage of the land, “He added.
They are seeking the processing of Title of 93 acres of land, the property on which they resided and also a Compensation for 74.42 acres, property that had been compulsorily acquired for the construction for the Standard Gauge Railway.
They added that sometime in mid-2023, we learnt that the Ministry of Lands was in the process of processing the title to the 94 acres that we occupied.
THAT this came as great news because finally we could get the reprieve we finally needed. Ever since we occupied the property, we had strangers trying to evict us forcefully and even sending goons and sometimes armed police officers to evict us.
THAT throughout the period the transaction was going on, the information concerning the progress of the compensation and/or sale of the property came from the officials led by Mr. John Kiyian Karu who was the Secretary of the Settlement Scheme but they never at any point called us for the meeting.
THAT I recall that in one instance I took it upon myself to call Mr. John Karu and asked him to call for a meeting to update the members on what was happening at Ardhi House in Nairobi.
THAT at one point Mr. John Karu informed me that he had a few pending meetings with the Ministry of Lands and then once they had discussed and conclusively agreed, the members would be called for a meeting. We never heard from Mr. Karu as was expected.
THAT there were all indications that the transaction was not going to be transparent but we were comforted that we had advocates on record to ensure fairness.
