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Kakuzi’s relief as court upholds order blocking trespass on its farm
Residents are challenging the court's verdict to dismiss their claim on the land and a finding that Kakuzi is the bonafide registered owner of the property.
Listed agricultural trading company Kakuzi Ltd has secured a reprieve after a court declined to suspend the implementation of a judgement that barred a group of Murang'a residents from interfering or trespassing on its vast land, which measures 1,142 acres.
Residents, under the auspices of Kakuzi Kinyangi Mixed Organic Farmers (CBO), wanted the Environment and Lands Court to issue stay orders against the judgment pending the determination of their appeal.
They have since moved to the Court of Appeal challenging the judgement dated January 29, 2025, which allowed Kakuzi Ltd to continue utilising the land.
They are challenging the court's verdict to dismiss their claim on the land and a finding that Kakuzi is the bonafide registered owner of the property. The dispute concerns ownership and usage of the land measuring 1,142 acres.
The company utilises the same for cultivation, particularly, farming blueberries and macadamia for export and cattle grazing.
The judgement also barred the aggrieved residents from trespassing onto the suit property or interfering with the company's peaceful possession and occupation of the same.
Justice Maxwell Gicheru on Wednesday declined to suspend execution of the verdict saying that the residents would not suffer any substantial loss because they were not in occupation or possession of the suit land.
"The applicants did not attach even a single photograph to show that they have anything of their own on the suit land. There are no structures or crops on the land that belong to the applicants. Since they do not occupy the land, they cannot be heard to say that they will suffer substantial loss if the application is not allowed," said Justice Gicheru while sitting at the Environment and Lands Court in Murang'a.
Kakuzi, through Janet Kabaya, the head of the Legal, Gender, and Human Rights department, had also opposed the granting of the temporary orders arguing that the move would have been prejudicial to the company.
In their claim, the residents said the land is part of the Ithanga Settlement Scheme and that it is subject to a 1979 surrender by the company to the residents.
They claimed that despite the surrender of the land, the company had failed to hand over the original title deed for the purpose of excision of the affected parcels of land in favour of the beneficiaries of the surrender, despite several reminders and demands by the affected parties since 1979.
The court dispute over the subject land started in October 2023 after a group of people stormed the land and began surveying, apportioning, and erecting beacons on a section of the suit property with the help of the surveyor.
The exercise was based on the grounds that the company had surrendered the affected parcel of land to the residents, which claim Kakuzi refuted.
Kakuzi sought intervention from the police who required the individuals to supply evidence of the said surrender of the land, and which evidence was not forthcoming.
Subsequently, the company registered a complaint with the Police and proceeded to remove the beacons erected on the suit property by the individuals.
It informed the court that there was a live dispute between the parties before the National Land Commission over the suit property.
