Court blocks Mumias from selling 850-acre cane farm
The farmers moved to court to stop the sale by MSC to recover a loan of Sh111 million said to have been loaned out to directors of Busia Sugar Company,.
A court in Bungoma Wednesday temporarily blocked Mumias Sugar from selling land belonging to cane farmers.
The farmers in Busia County won a reprieve in the dispute over the 850-acre Nasewa Nucleus Estate until an ownership tussle is resolved.
Mumias Sugar chief executive and managing director Evans Kidero, the Kenya Sugar Board, Busia Sugar Company, , Kaplony Ltd and Wetang’ula Adan and Makokha Advocates have also been restrained from transferring the land.
The court has also temporarily stopped the Attorney-General, Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Lands and Police commissioners from interfering with the ownership of the estate or issuing certificate of title to third parties pending full determination of the suit.
A lobby group and cane farmers moved to court to stop the sale of the vast land in western Kenya.
The case had been moved to the Bungoma High Court from Nairobi.
Justice David Majanja said, while transferring the case, that the High Court in Nairobi had no proper jurisdiction to determine the matter as the disputed land and most of the parties in the suit were based in western Kenya.
Kenyans for Justice and Development Trust led by activist Okiya Omtatah and 28 other petitioners including Nambale MP Chris Okemo and former A-G Amos Wako filed the suit seeking orders to restrain Mr Kidero and three companies from transacting any business with the land saying it is a public property.
The petitioners argue that Nasewa Necleus Estate is earmarked for a sugar factory but had allegedly been illegally transferred to Kaplony Ltd.
Court documents indicate the land was acquired compulsorily by the government from the community in Busia in 1996 to establish Busia Sugar Factory.
The lobby argues that the move displaced about 100 families without compensation despite having been assured that they would be duly reimbursed and allocated alternative land.
According to the petitioners, the government promised to compensate the displaced farmers with Sh100, 000 per acre. But they claim that the valuation was later reduced to Sh84, 000 and on December 1996, the residents were paid Sh34, 000 and forcibly evicted.
The land was set to be sold to settle a Sh120 million debt Busia Sugar Factory owed to Mumias, which sparked uproar from the farmers and civil rights activists who questioned the process that led to its sale.
Mumias lent the money to Busia Sugar Company, which was placed under receivership, to pay farmers in the region and it successfully petitioned the courts to allow it to sell the land to recover the money.
The land had been set aside for the stalled Busia Sugar Factory that was initiated in 1990s but the project has stalled.
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