A case involving a former powerful police officer over the ownership of a 300-acre-ranch in Nyandarua has been in court for over 48 years.
Benjamin Gethi, who was once the commandant of the General Service Unit (GSU) and later police commandant, was dimmed untouchable all his life and even after death.
A long-running Ksh150 million land dispute involving him and two ‘peasants’ is, thanks to inordinate delays, now going to be fought out in courts by their sons.
All the plaintiffs in the case argue that the massive chunk of land was awarded to them as a gift from a white settler farmer, one Fabian Harry Wallis.
The two ‘peasants’, Ndurere Muhunyu and Ithinyai M’narangui, who have since died, were both employees of Wallis.
The land registered under Murua Limited - whose directors are Angela Wairimu Gethi, the former police chief’s widow, and Peter Nderitu Gethi with court documents showing that the land was transferred from Wallis to Meja Gethi in 1971 as a gift.
When Gethi died in 1994, he left his widow to continue with the battle against the two who also died around 2009 both aged over 103 years leaving their sons to follow through.
Daily Nation reports that all the parties accuse each other of trespass and fraudulently acquiring the ownership documents, but with each side believing they have genuine papers for the land in Murichu, Ndaragwa Constituency, the case provides an example of the confusion at the land registries.
“The deceased joint owners occupied the land with their families and enjoyed quiet, peaceful and exclusive use until soon after 1971, when agents of Benjamin Gethi and policemen descended upon the land and forcefully and violently evicted the families of the deceased from their homes, thereby effectively rendering them squatters on the land,” lawyer Wamahiu stated
Nderitu claims they are the legal owners of the property, and wants the squatters evicted.
In 2018, 10 members of the two families of the deceased invaded the land and started erecting semi-permanent structures.
Police officers from Ndaragwa and Nyahururu police stations arrested them last year and charged them with malicious damage to property.
