More than 2,000 squatters from Kiang’ombe village, Thika Town constituency, Kiambu County, have expressed their disappointment in getting their title deeds.
The squatters under the Maasai Village Women Self-help Group are now seeking intervention of President Uhuru Kenyatta to help speed up acquisition of the title deeds for the 360-acre piece of land.
The group chairman Ibrahim Woche said the squatters are living in fear of losing their land, which they claim was given as a token of appreciation in 1992, during the multiparty elections.
Speaking in Kiang’ombe over the weekend, Woche said some unscrupulous land officials are working with land grabbers to forge documents to sell their land to unsuspecting investors.
“The land cartels are well-known, and they have already swindled investors of billions of money by selling land that belongs to the squatters.
“They [grabbers] constructed perimeter walls on the land and evicted those who had settled in. They took over all public utilities, including the land set aside for construction of a school. We, however, believe that once we get the title deeds all the land cartels will be kicked out for good,” Woche said as quoted by
On March 22, Woche had written to Lands CS Farida Karoney asking to be issued with title deeds, stating that they have been remitting land rates to the county government for years.
After writing the letter, the National Lands Commission (NLC0 reached out to Kiambu County Lands Executive questioning the status of the land.
Lands executive J M Maina wrote to NLC who had inquired about the land, saying the squatters should be settled on the land.