County Executive Committee Member for the Department of Lands, Physical Planning, Housing and Urban Development Mr Anthony Sitienei has cautioned residents against fights arising from land and property disputes without seeking professional guidance from the Department’s experts and the legal counsel.

At Shauri Moyo Estate this morning, Mr. Sitienei seeked to understand and address a land dispute that has been ongoing for many years without successful resolution.

The parties claiming ownership of Land parcels have a history of multiple sales of the same property to different unsuspecting buyers leading to fights while denying the rightful owners the opportunity to develop the said property.

“We advice all parties to look into the history of the parcels and get the right documentation for true tenure of the land. This history will give us the true picture and enable the right owners get back their land,” said Mr. Sitienei

Mr. Sitienei in consultation with the area MCA Hon. Kimani Wanjohi, Ag. Director Urban Development Planner Jacktone Kiprop and Adv. Ronald Kiprop from the legal department agreed that there is an urgent need to undertake public participation where all the involved will air out their grievances.

Planner Jacktone Kiprop, in his remarks, said that there are a lot of fake documents that are being presented to manipulate the information including different maps and said that the idea of resolving the dispute was timely.

Adv. Ronald Kiprop said that there is a need for all parties to seek legal counsel and a need to ensure that the public land meant for the construction of a market for the people of Shauri Moyo be secured and developed to enable the residents to undertake their economic activities therein.

Area residents gave a long history of the Land noting that the sale of land was initiated by the initial owner who was a white settler to the church and later other parties emerged and claimed ownership of the land without clarity on how they acquired ownership documents. From the residents, the battle for the property dates back many years back.