An aging widow of former Olympic champion Naftali Temu has asked the government to help her reposes part of the land that her late husband was awarded by the founding father Mzee Jomo Kenyatta.
Josephine Temu said that a private developer had fenced part of the land claiming that it belonged to him.
According to her efforts, to have the man believed to be acting on directives from a powerful individual out of the land have been futile since case has been pending in Nyamira law courts for three years now.
“I don’t know where to get help but I believe the government will help me get my land back. It may be 0.5ha but it genuinely belongs to me because my husband got it from the government after the 1968 Olympic Games,” she said.
“Trouble started in 2012 but despite taking the case to court, the defendant has been successfully postponing it and I suspect that there is someone powerful behind this,” she added.
According to her, the accused who she identified as Moses Mogeni fenced the piece of land despite the maize crop she planted earlier this year and feared he may start constructing on it.
“He fenced the land recently despite the maize plantation on it. He is very stubborn and may soon construct on my land because he claims he has a title deed,” she added.
However, Mogeni argued that he was the genuine beneficiary of the land and had all rights to develop it since he had acquired it from his father who used to work with Kenya Surveyors.
“This is my land and my father had acquired it in 1975 when he used to work with Kenya Surveyors,” he said.
Temu’s husband Naftali Temu is the first and apparently the last Kenya to win an Olympic Gold media in 10,000M in Mexico City’s games (1968) since no Kenyan has ever won it, four decades since his success.