Mombasa, KENYA: A section of Residents in Makande area Mvita Constituency risk being kicked out of ‘their’ land.
Speaking on Thursday at the Kenya School of Government-Likoni when they appeared before the National Land Commission, most of the residents failed to provide full documentation of the land they claim was allocated to them by the then Mombasa municipal council.
“I bought three acres pieces of land for sh. 5 million, but I didn’t know the land belonged to the National Housing Cooperation. I Want Mombasa authorities to show me my land or else I’ll move to court.” Said Ali Habshi who was explaining to the NLC on how he got Land in the area.
The National Land Commission was enquiring on how the individuals acquired land which belonged to the National Housing Cooperation at Makande. The Director’s Cooperation Andrew Sesii said they had put a perimeter wall on the land only to find the spaces left for sewer parking and open spaces grabbed.
“This people must make arrangements to move because public land has never been available for allocation.” Said the NLC vice chair Abigael who led the commission.
On his side, Michael Ngure who appeared before the committee enquiring on Land allocated for Nyali secondary School said their Land had more than ten illegal subdivisions which they wanted the commission to explain how the land was grabbed.
“We’ve seen illegal structures being built on our land. How did these people acquire titles of a public land? We want the commission to answer that.” Said Michael Ngure who represented the Nyali secondary School Land.
However, most of the people who were accused of grabbing the land blamed the former Mombasa Municipal council for allocating them the land.
“Most of the people who have appeared before us are holding 99 years leases which are not even registered in the main lease freehold plan. We have failed to understand how they found themselves on the land, they are claiming to have subdivision titles but none of those titles have been registered in the main title.” Added the NLC vice chair
“We’ll also enquire from Mombasa County on how this land was allocated to individuals, to tell us how these leases came from,” she said.
The commission is now expected to write a report on their findings as the individuals on the land remain on toes.
