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State to pay investor Sh17.3bn for invasion of Narok farm
The court heard that the investor still owned the land, although there was a dispute as to the acreage which would be resolved by the National Land Commission.
The government will compensate a Narok investor Sh17.3 billion following the invasion of his expansive ranch and takeover by members of a local community decades ago.
Although the amount is almost half of what the land court had ordered the government to compensate Mr Hermanus Styen in 2018, taxpayers will be forced to pay the money after the Court of Appeal ruled that the police failed to protect the investor from the invasion and the destruction of his property, from 1991.
Justices Patrick Kiage, Lydia Achode and Weldon Korir ruled that the failure by the police to take any action to stop the invasion, destruction, and illegal occupation despite numerous requests and court orders was an untenable abdication of State’s foremost duties, “namely the protection of private property”.
“The situation is in this case compounded by the fact that government functionaries among them the powerful Minister of Interior in the President’s office, were complicit in the incitement and encouragement of the invasion of the land by the neighbouring community, once the respondent’s directors were labelled foreigners and “Mzungu” who they expressly stated should not be on their land,” ruled the judges.
The court said the brazen, and contemptuous acts of rank impunity that led to the total dispossession of Nguruman Ltd’s land was a classic case of unlawful expropriation by private citizens with the ‘State’s connivance’ and the State must in law be liable to compensate the respondent.
Nguruman Ltd said it was the registered proprietor of the land known as LR No Narok/Nguruman/Kamorora/1, measuring about 66,700 acres. The land is situated in Narok County, in the Nguruman area, near Lake Magadi, and borders two group ranches.
Mr Steyn said he entered into discussions with the group ranches around 1983, with plans to lease or acquire the land.
The land was subsequently transferred from Nguruman Kamorora Group Ranch to Nguruman Ltd sometime in 1986 and the Styen family, later acquired a majority shareholding in the company.
The court heard that the first invasion happened in 1991 by armed members of the neighbouring Shompole group ranch, who trespassed into the southern portion of the land, causing damage. The investor moved to court and obtained court orders, but they were allegedly not enforced.
In a bid to resolve the dispute, the investor and local representatives allegedly held but instead of moving out, more invaders joined and started cultivating the land.
Soon thereafter, the suit land was invaded by armed groups of people who violently ejected the company’s staff from its Olduvai and Nkareketi camps and proceeded to loot and destroy the property.
The investor said the trespassers also took possession of Laro Camp and in doing so completed the total expulsion of the investor from the expansive land.
The land court had awarded the investor Sh33 billion but the Attorney General appealed the decision arguing that the government had not taken over the land.
The court heard that the investor still owned the land, although there was a dispute as to the acreage which would be resolved by the National Land Commission.
Justices Kiage, Achode and Korir dismissed the government’s claims and faulted the state agencies for making no attempts to protect the land in the face of heavily armed and emboldened invaders.
“The effect was that the respondent was eventually deprived of its property in violation of its right under Article 40 of the Constitution,” said the judges.
The court ordered the government to pay Nguruman Ltd Sh16.7 billion as compensation for the land, Sh340 million for compensation for the destroyed lodges, and a further Sh162 million for electricity and water supply and other installations destroyed by the invaders.
The government will also pay Nguruman Sh61.1 million for loss of assets, furniture, and consumables, a further Sh11.2 million for motor vehicles stolen, and Sh39.4 million for trees destroyed by the invaders.
