Embittered
John Kaigi Gika stands outside his semi-permanent three-room house, completely lost in his thoughts. His eyes are trained on yet another multi-million house coming up on a piece of land about 60 meters away.
In an embittered tone, Gika, aged 87 years, starts to narrate how his family has had to watch several buildings estimated at millions of shillings spring up on land he claims was forcefully taken away from his family over two decades ago. Gika who avers that he acquired the land in 1954, says unscrupulous land dealers have continued to hive off his land and are even bold enough to erect signposts inviting prospective buyers.
“My land has been taken away and not even the courts have stopped the grabbers,” he says of the prime property at the high-end London Estate within Nakuru Town West Sub-County. Documents in possession of the octogenarian implicate prominent businessmen and influential personalities as those behind the illegal sale of the land known as Nakuru Municipality, Block 21/75.
Even with original documents and a court order reverting the land to Gika’s family, land dealers are still having a field day buying from ‘owners’ and sub-dividing it. He adds that one of the persons who had settled on the plot used it as security to get loans, leaving the Gika family, who held the mother title deed, and still do, deep in debt.
“He took loans in the name of the family of Gika. The total loan now stands at over Sh1 million and which has been heaped on the family. And because of the financial burden, my children, grandchildren and great grandchildren are wallowing in poverty,” offers Gika.
With tears streaming down his cheeks, the soft-spoken former employee of East African Railways and Harbours says his family has never known peace for over two decades after over 300 individuals invaded their property. Gika told Kenya News Agency that he was arrested and locked up at Kaptembwa Police Station on December 13 last year before being arraigned in court on charges of assault.
He maintains that the charges were trumped up to box him into silence over his bid to reclaim the property. Gika alleges that the illegal occupants have refused to vacate the property despite the Ministry of Lands confirming in writing that his family legally owns the land. Instead, he alleges, his family has been receiving threats from individuals who have encroached on the property.
Armed with documents, including from the Ministry of Lands Gika maintains his attempts to seek legal assistance have hit a snag. He says upon his lawyer contacting the encroachers in November 2014, he was summoned and asked to drop the suit so that they could strike an out-of-court settlement.
John Kaigi Gika at his home in London Estate within Nakuru-Town West Sub-County. Gika points out that he was ready to furnish all the relevant states with legal land ownership documents showing that his family owns a prime property which he claims has been grabbed by private investors. Photo by Dennis Rasto.
He, however, declined the offer by the encroachers, saying the property was not worth the Sh500,000 compensation they wanted to give him.
“The encroachers had agreed during the talks to compensate me with a paltry Sh500,000 for the land, which I vehemently opposed. It was laughable that such a piece of land was worth the figures they were offering me, yet the same land in this area goes for Sh30 million. Not to forget that they have illegitimately occupied my land for over 20 years,” Gika says.
He says in 2016 he approached another lawyer who asked for Sh60,000 as legal fee, which he honoured. But the lawyer allegedly withdrew his services under inexplicable circumstances and vanished. Since then, he claims he has lived under threats and intimidation whenever he attempts to seek justice over the property.
“Some of the grabbers have been intimidating me by saying I do not have the financial muscle and connections to fight such multi-millionaires, and I should forget about the land,” says Gika. He says he doesn’t understand why the grabbers are acting with impunity, trampling on his constitutional rights in a country governed by laws.
Gika says he, together with his family, have written petitions to various government agencies seeking their intervention in vain. The parcel of land is located along the Nakuru-Kabarak road, some two kilometres from Nakuru town. The aggrieved family has now written to the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC), the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA), the Office of the Administration of Justice and the Ministry of Lands.
Gika further alleges that some persons well known to him have also encroached on the family land and are subdividing it using forged documentation. He affirms that all the said land transfers have been done without the knowledge of his family. He adds that fingerprints used to authenticate documents were also found to have been forged by the masterminds of the grabbing.
Gika points out that he was ready to furnish all the relevant parties with legal land ownership documents showing that his family owned the land. “We as a family are just demanding justice. We have been threatened and intimidated for a long time,” pleads the octogenarian.