Widow tells how she lost land to bigwigs
What you need to know:
- “I saw them placing beacons. I inquired what was going on as the plot belonged to my late husband, and I was told the government was surveying the land to be given to needy people,” said Ms Kimitei.
- She said the invaders did not show her any identification and she believed they were State officials as they were guarded by Administration Police officers.
- She was giving evidence in a case before Nairobi chief magistrate Hanna Ndung’u in which Mr Tarus is charged with defrauding her of the land estimated to cost Sh954 million.
A 90-year-old widow Thursday recounted in court how former big names in Kanu invaded her land, on the pretence that the government was surveying the area to settle the needy in Eldoret.
Ms Anne Nyogio Kimitei, through an interpreter, said senior civil servants in the Kanu regime, led by businessman Eric Kibiwott Tarus, invaded the 975-acre ranch in 1984, surveyed it and placed beacons.
She was giving evidence in a case before Nairobi chief magistrate Hanna Ndung’u in which Mr Tarus is charged with defrauding her of the land estimated to cost Sh954 million.
He is charged alongside former Eldoret DC Benjamin Kuto, former Kenya Pipeline Corporation boss Ezekiel Komen, senior lands registrar Agnes Wangu and four others.
“I saw them placing beacons. I inquired what was going on as the plot belonged to my late husband, and I was told the government was surveying the land to be given to needy people,” said Ms Kimitei.
GUARDED BY ADMINISTRATION POLICE
She said the invaders did not show her any identification and she believed they were State officials as they were guarded by Administration Police officers.
She said the land was taken away from her and she has since been fighting protracted court battles to repossess it.
“First we went to the DC with my son...he could not help us, we continued with our inquiry but did not get help until the case was taken over for investigations by the DCI in Nairobi,” she said.
The widow said Mr Tarus took over her land and brought in other people.
In the case, Ms Wangu, a lands registrar at Ardhi House in Nairobi, has denied abusing her authority to transact fake land transfer documents.
She is charged with “arbitrary issue of instructions on behalf of the chief lands registrar to the district lands registrar in Eldoret to transfer documents in the name of Mr Eric Kibiwott Tarus, Benjamin Kuto and Ezekiel Komen as the purported trustees” of the land in dispute.
Hearing continues Friday.
