THE estate of the first wife of President Mzee Jomo Kenyatta has been sued over a plot of land in Dagoretti. Gichuhi Kinyanjui claims that Kenyatta took his land in Dagoretti without consent and failed to keep his promise to compensate him.
He is suing the chief government legal advisor, the commissioner of lands and the administrators of the estate of late Grace Wahu Kenyatta. Gichuhi says he was given 1.9 acres of land in the 1950s by his father late Kinyanjui Matibia bordering land belonging to late Wahu.
Kinyanjui farmed the land in Ngando within Dagoretti for three seasons. The plot was registered in 1958 under Gichuhi's name. While he was waiting for the title deed, emissaries advised him that Mzee Kenyatta wanted to consolidate the piece of land with that of the late Wahu. Kinyanjui said he was told he would be compensated.
Kinyanjui says that he never reached a final agreement with the emissaries and never got any compensation. He learned later that his land was consolidated without his consent and registered as LR Dagoretti/Riruta/861. The name of the new owner was Mzee Jomo Kenyatta.
Further inquiries at the land registry showed that the parcel had gone through several changes and its number was changed from 861 to 4099. Kinyanjui says the emissaries never put anything in writing but just gave him verbal promises which have not materialized to date.
After the death of Wahu in 2007, he tried to engage the legal firm of Waweru Gatonye who were the administrators of the estate but only got a letter from the firm saying that they were consulting with Wahu Kenyatta’s family.
Kinyanjui said he then opened a claim file at the Lands ministry when he failed to make any progress with the law firm. His intention was to cancel the title deed given to the Kenyatta family and have one issued in his name.
He said the Lands offices was unfriendly when he visited so he went to the Attorney-General’s office seeking assistance. The AG’s office subsequently wrote to the Commissioner of Lands but this did not elicit any response.
After this attempt failed, Gichuhi he delayed filing the case in court because he was afraid of taking on an ‘influential family.’ Gichuhi, represented by Musyoka and Muigai advocates, says he has documentary evidence showing that he was unlawfully denied his land and there was little he could do since the beneficiary was the late President Kenyatta. He believes he should be compensated for the loss occasioned as he remains destitute.
“The petitioner avers that he has done all that is practically possible to either recover his land or get compensated but all his efforts have hit a dead end and its only this court which can intervene and order that the commissioner of lands either cancel the consolidation or compensation for his land,” says his affidavit.
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