Kibiko community association in court to block grabbing of land in Ngong Forest

Over one hundred Kibiko Community Forest Association members are asking the courts to stop one Geoffrey Tenai from grabbing three acres of land off the Kibiko forest within the larger Ngong Forest.

The community is also suing officials from the Lands Registrar, the Ministries of Lands and Environment, the Forestry Department, the County Government of Kajiado, Kenya Forest Service, Nema and the Attorney-General.

The community states that Kibiko forest remained undisturbed until July of this year when the Chief Lands Registrar issued a certificate of title of the land measuring 1.390 hectares for a lease of 99 years backdated to 1995 to Geoffrey Tenai.

The community states that the land was excised and alienated from the forest unconstitutionally, allowing Tenai to fell trees, clear the land and erect the perimeter wall without the requisite permits from the county and the forest service.

Documents filed in court by the associations’ lawyers show that Geoffrey Tenai was issued a title deed for land no L.R. 261382, on the 13th of July this year.

A month later, the Kenya Forest Service in a letter signed on behalf of the chief conservator of forests, appeared to confirm the mapping out of the land in question. The chief conservator of forests however declined to survey and identify beacons of the property.

The land has already been fenced off, a concrete perimeter wall constructed and further works are ongoing with a palatial building also ongoing.

The land has been hived off the gazetted forest land that is adjacent to a government institute, the Kenya Institute of Highways and Buildings Technology.

In its petition, the community also states that Tenai has been sued before and judgements entered against him in similar land grab situations.

The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) is already investigating the matter after receiving the complaints from the community and will be seeking to establish the facts with the view of recovering the land and restoring it to the community.

The matter is slated to be mentioned in court on the 11th of December this year.