NLC says it has not determined ownership of prime property in Nairobi's Donholm estate.
This comes as a huge blow to Sowesava Self-Help Group comprising squatters who have long held that the NLC allocated them the land in Nairobi.
The group has been pitted in a 10-year dispute against Alfajiri Self-Help Group over the Sh1 billion land.
The National Land Commission (NLC) now says it has not determined ownership of contested prime property in Donholm, Nairobi that is at the centre of legal battles and encroachment by squatters lay claim to it.
Former vice-chairperson Abigael Mbagaya Mukolwe said in a gazette notice dated February 15 the commission had never determined ownership of the contested property LR No. Nairobi Block 82.
“The National Land Commission has not/never rendered any determination under section 14 of the NLC Act in relation to Nairobi Block 82/7375, Nairobi Block 82/7333 or the title thereof,” she said in the notice.
The tenure of the nine-member NLC team chaired by Muhammad Swazuri ended on February 19 after the mandatory six-year term.
The gazette notice further clarifies that the matter of contested ownership of the property is pending before courts and therefore the NLC could not make a determination as it would be sub judice.
The notice is in line with the position the commission had taken last April when it disowned ‘resolutions’ purporting to award prime parcels of land to self-help groups. The NLC dismissed the letters, on whose strength two self-help groups were laying claim to land ownership, as forgeries.
The gazette notice comes as a huge blow to Sowesava Self-Help Group comprising squatters who have long held that the NLC allocated them the land in Nairobi.
The group linked to developers of the Greenspan Estate has been pitted in a 10-year dispute against Alfajiri Self-Help Group over the Sh1 billion land.
Justice Kossy Bor of the Environment and Land Court ruled that the Sauti Sacco Society Limited was the owner of the parcel of land 82/4264, a block from which a portion was hived off and sold to Greenspan Developers Limited.
The court further ruled that the suit property was private land and ceased to exist when it was subdivided into two blocks, noting that Alfajiri could not lay claim to private property it never owned.
The NLC had earlier accused some self-help groups of being behind land grabbing in Eastlands, Nairobi.
Mr Swazuri claimed last April the cartels usually identify prime undeveloped land and present themselves as squatters who need the commission to settle them, thereby disinheriting the genuine owners of the parcels of land.
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