Murang’a, Kiambu Residents Denied Access to Del Monte Land

The Ministry of Lands has denied Kenyans access to 7,447 acres of state land held by  Del Monte, despite the National Land Commission’s (NLC) issue of Legal Notice No 1995 dated March 1, 2021, which ordered any excess land be shared between the locals and Murang’a and Kiambu counties on a 70-30 per cent basis.

This is after the Lands Cabinet Secretary, Farida Karoney,  revealed that there is no excess land as LR No 12203/1/2, whose lease expired in July 2019, was allocated to the Kiambu County.

However, the  Committee on Implementation of House Resolutions has accused the Ministry of exploiting the powers of NLC by proposing that the land be given to the County Government of Murang’a instead of residents who had petitioned for allocation of the same. 

In a meeting with the Kandara Residents Association to receive  views following the Ministry’s verdict, the Committee chair noted that the Cabinet Secretary is usurping the powers of the National Land Commission, which is unconstitutional.

This preceeded the committee’s inquiry over the  circumstances under which the land that was said to have been surrendered by two companies  were later acquired by Del Monte Kenya Limited. 

An earlier submission to the committee NLC chairperson, Gershom Otachi, stated that the parcels of land were originally owned by Chui Estates Limited up to 1973 and the transfer was done through a memorandum of registration transfer of lands at a consideration of Ksh2 million, to the government of Kenya.  

“The Commission, however, taking note of the passage of time and parties involved in the transaction could not unearth further details that necessitated the transfer nor amalgamation of the said parcels of land,” Otachi explained to the committee.

Earlier on, the Parliament had  ordered the Director of Survey to conduct a resurvey on the entire land Del Monte Kenya Limited holds while the Kandara Residents Association had asked Parliament to instruct the Ministry of Land to allocate the public land under Del Monte.