For the last 27 years, Marcella Njeeri, a 76-year-old widow, has been pursuing her late husband Muchiri M’Imaana’s land located at Thau/Mumui adjudication section in Meru.
In 2013, she saw some light after the then Tigania West District Commissioner (DC) Ratunka Ole Kikua determined that she be allocated five acres from the disputed 20-acre land.
However, her reprieve was short-lived after DC Ole Kikua’s decision went missing and the appeal was heard afresh, quashing the 2012 resolution.
When we meet Njeeri at her home in Kimachia village, she is holding onto a bundle of documents including a front page of the Daily Nation of September 2021 with the headline; “Karoney spills the beans on Ardhi cartels”.
The admission by former lands Cabinet Secretary Faridah Karoney that the ministry was captured by cartels, is part of Ms Njeeri’s bundle of evidence in her belief that Ardhi house is the source of her tribulations in the land dispute dates back to the mid-1990s.
“From the admission of the former lands minister, it goes without saying why I have suffered injustice for years under the ministry of land officials,” Ms Njeeri says.
According to Njeeri, her late husband was allocated a 20-acre land, at Muramba in Tigania West by the government in 1969.
She claims that he later entered a gentleman’s agreement with the late Mainda Mathina, a friend, to tend for the land with the promise that he would give him two acres once title deeds were issued.
Ms Njeeri says she farmed the land alongside Mr Mathina from the 1970’s until early 1990’s when the adjudication process kicked off.
“When adjudication started, Mr Mathina told the committee that he had bought the entire 20 acres for Sh1,100 from my husband. I disputed his claim and the case was heard by the land committee. However, the committee dismissed my case and allocated the entire land to Mathina yet there was no sale agreement produced,” she recounts.
Undeterred, she filed an objection to the land adjudication officer-led arbitration board.
According to proceedings seen by The Voice Daily, the late Mr Mathina told the arbitration board that he bought the land from Mr M’Imaana and sought a change of ownership in 1994, which was not disputed.
“Later in 1996, the plaintiff in this case filed an objection against parcels number 154, 613,614,615 and 616 respectively… The plaintiff’s husband was present on the hearing date and gave his input confirming the sale of the original parcel number 154 to the defendant in this case…” the proceedings read in part.
The proceedings further state that the adjudication officer found that Mr M’Imaana had sold the whole land to Mr Mathina in 1972 and allocated Ms Njeeri one acre of the land ‘on humanitarian grounds’.
She was consequently awarded a title deed for the one acre. Unsatisfied with the decision, Ms Njeeri filed an appeal to the Minister in 2005 as per the Land Adjudication Act.
The appeal was heard seven years later, in 2013, where the DC Ole Kikua led panel established that Mr M’Imaana had sold the land to Mr Muthina in 1969 through an oral contract.
The appeal panel also determined that Mr Muthina had lived in the land for 40 years giving him the right to adverse possession.
In his ruling, Mr Ole Kikua ordered that Ms Njeeri be allocated five acres of the land on grounds that no written land sale agreement was availed and that she was not aware of the sale deal in 1972.
“It is justifiable that the complainant be given a substantial portion of the land that can sustain her and the family economically. It is fair that she gets five acres from the original land prior to subdivision…” the minister’s appeal panel of 2013 ruled.
A document seen by the writer indicates that this decision was transmitted to the Ministry of lands in October 2013 as per the law.
However, six years later, in 2019, former Tigania West deputy county commissioner (DCC) Stanlaus Apwokha repeated Ms Njeeri’s appeal hearing.
He reversed Mr Ole Kikua’s 2013 decision and upheld the 1994 arbitration board verdict allocating one acre to Ms Njeeri.
As a result, Ms Njeeri has two contradicting decisions from Tigania West DCC’s office; one by Mr Ole Kikua allocating her five acres and another by Mr Apwokha awarding her one acre.
“My big question is, who requested for the second appeal to the minister in 2019? When I was summoned by DCC Apwokha in 2019, I thought they wanted to implement the 2013 decision. I was not informed that the appeal was being repeated,” she lamented.
But speaking by phone, Mr Apwokha defended his actions saying he heard the appeal after the file was brought to his desk by the lands department.
Mr Apwokha added that the hearing was duly conducted and the proceedings sent to Nairobi as per the law.
“When a minister’s appeal is concluded, a copy of the decision and file is sealed and sent to Nairobi. If at all this matter was concluded in 2013, why was the file still on my desk in 2019? How did the complainant acquire the copy of the decision she claims gave her five acres of land?” Mr Apwokha posed.
He added that the verdict said to have been issued by his predecessor in 2013 lacked basis in law.
According to the Land Adjudication act, once the appeal to the Minister has been determined and an order given, ‘the order shall be final’.
Mr Marius Maranya, a constitutional lawyer based in Meru says that an appeal to the Minister cannot be reviewed by a DCC once an order has been given.
“An appeal to the minister can only be reviewed through a judicial review at the high court. If all the facts are right, then due process was not followed in this matter,” Mr Maranya says.
Mr Apwokha says there was a need for relevant government agencies to probe how Ms Njeeri got a copy of a determination by his predecessor in 2013.
“She should be investigated for forgery. If at all Ms Njeeri is not satisfied with my verdict upholding the earlier decision by the lands committee awarding her one acre, she should proceed to the high court,” he said.
But Ms Njeeri maintains she was able to obtain a signed copy of the 2013 determination from the ministry of lands headquarters, before it was declared missing.
“I bought a copy of the 2013 decision in Nairobi but now they claim they do not have the original document. Who is tampering with files at the Lands registry?” Ms Njeeri poses.
Ms Njeeri has also raised the matter through the office of the ombudsman citing poor service delivery by the ministry of lands.
