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By Gerald Kibaki
The Environment and Land Court sitting in Meru dismissed a petition filed by some Mau Mau descendants claiming ownership of the 600,000 acres occupied by commercial farmers who are mostly foreigners.
The more than 600,000 acres of land in Buuri constituency, Meru county, utilized by foreigners has no legal claimant, the Meru high court has said.
Judge Charles Yano said the petition seemed defective because substantive evidence did not support the allegations before the court.
Yano said the petitioners had not stated how the respondents had violated the law.
“The petitioners’ plea was based on “generalized allegations” about forced displacement from their land. They have not provided particulars of the allegations of organized cruel and forcible detainment, nor have they disclosed how their constitutional rights have been violated in this regard,” Yano said.
Yano said the petitioners did not present any documentation of the properties mentioned in the petition or prove to whom they belonged, individual petitioners in the suit but were illegally dispossessed, by whom, and in what manner.
Speaking after the ruling, Robert Kinyua, the Cultural Centre chairman, said they were glad they had received a hearing.
He said they would pursue their cause and seek fresh documentation to file a new petition to regain the land.
He said after their displacement, the present occupiers of the land had farmed it since 1919 and continue to do so, yet the real owners were living as squatters while others were in slums.
The petitioners, who had sued the management of the large farms, the Agricultural Finance Corporation, the National Land Commission, The Settlement Funds Trust, and the Attorney General wanted the land given back to them.
They also want the respondents prosecuted for cruelty against the Meru Tribe and compensation for loss of commercial properties.
They said they were not only dispossessed of their land, but were also subjected to brutality, and their fundamental rights and freedoms were violated, the petitioners argued.
They said they were exploited; their land was stolen, leaving them desperate and dispossessed.
They said they would keep trying to prove land ownership in Meru and seek compensation. A few living veterans were among them.
The petitioners, represented by the Meru Cultural Centre, argued they were driven out of the vast land in the Buuri subcounty by people aided by the colonial government.
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