Cabinet Secretary for Lands at State House on February 16, Farida Alice Chepchumba Karoney has explained the drama behind a dispute over the ownership of a piece of land in Nandi County.

Barnabas and his brother and former area MCA Amos Korir protested angrily against the surveying and fencing the land. They said they owned part of it and it should not be fenced until a case filed by the CS in a Kapsabet court was heard and determined.

The Korir family argued that they had lived on the land for more than 50 years without any dispute and they had been ambushed by a court order obtained by the CS.

“This is clearly not right and we’ll fight to the last man to ensure our land is not taken over by the CS, who seems to have been misled and conned to buy land that was not on sale,” Korir said.

The land saga has turned out to be CS Karoney’s first headache in public office. She has been accused of misusing her powers on the same day she was sworn in to evict the Korir family.

“We condemn the force and violence used against the family of Korir by those who fenced off the land,” elder Christopher Koiyogi said.

But Karoney has, personally and through her lawyers Kipkosgey Choge and Company Advocates, defended her ‘ownership’ of the land.

Karoney explained that she bought the land — registered as Nandi/Kamoiywo 760 — last November from one Linus Kogo, who produced a genuine land title during the sale process.

“I bought the land from the owner, who produced a valid land title and details of the purchase can be confirmed at the Kapsabet Lands registry by anyone wishing to do so,” she told journalists in Nairobi.

Karoney explained that the land had changed ownership three times from Maria Kabot Jelagat to her grandson Linus Kogo, through succession, and lately to her.

On February 16, when police officers went to enforce the court order, Kogo was present and insisted that the order be complied with.

Barnabas insists that Maria Kabot had sold the land to their father, Abraham Titomet Tenai, who died in 1996. He said they have been using the land since without any dispute.

“It was only recently fenced off forcibly after the CS wrongfully obtained a title deed— apparently having been misled by people who fraudulently sold it to her,” he said.

- The Star/Mathews Ndanyi