Activist Okiya Omtatah sues land investment group for fraud

Activist Okiya Omtatah sues land investment group for fraud

 

Civil rights activist Okiya Omtatah has filed a petition at the Environment and Lands Court in Nakuru High Court protesting the alleged grabbing of 400 hectares of land in the Quarantine Farm in Naivasha.

Omtatah accused Isahakiah Self Help Group of fraud saying it poses a false history of the presence of Somali community in Naivasha, terming it a historical injustice.

He claimed that the group has been used by land grabbers to steal land from the public and government institutions. The group together with the Chairman Farah Ali are respondents in the petition.

Omtatah has listed the Ministry of Land, Housing and Physical Planning, National Lands Commission (NLC) and the Attorney General as respondents in the case.

He also accused former Permanent Secretary of National Treasury and also Ministry of Lands the KANU era, Johnson Hungu, of abuse of office alleging that he tried to grab land belonging to the Kenya Agricultural and Research Organization.

Omtatah further alleged that Mr Hungu grabbed 28 hectares of Ol Magogo Farm within the said farm and continued to occupy the land.

Delamere Estate and Kenya Agricultural and Research Organization (KALRO) are the interested parties as part of their lands have allegedly been grabbed.

In his petition, Omtatah laments that President Kenyatta allegedly allocated the land to Isahakiah Group irregularly; claims that the president denied in a meeting at State House last year.

“I am aggrieved that land set aside since colonial times for research has been grabbed by four out of the seven respondents. The matter was recently aggravated by President Uhuru Kenyatta when he irregularly purported to have allocated the land to group which is being used by land grabbers in government and elsewhere,” Omtatah says in the petition.

“The petitioner wants the court to intervene and quash the President’s declaration as well as all other land grabs impugned herein,” Omtatah says in the petition.

He noted that KALRO would lose more than Ksh20 billion if urgent measures are not taken to ward off grabbers.

“The grabbing of land would put in jeopardy plans to implement Ksh2.5 billion World Bank project of setting up an ultra-modern research center for East Africa in Naivasha,” Omtatah said.

He wants all other files regarding the same land to be consolidated into one and handed to Chief Justice David Maraga. Omtatah has also applied for the CJ to appoint a three-judge bench to hear the case.

Judge Sila Munyao directed Omtatah to serve all the parties with the petition. The case will be mentioned on March 16, 2016.

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activist Okiya Omtatah Land fraud

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