The government has lost land worth over Ksh1.3 billion to a family following a blunder by officials which will see the Saggaf family in Kwale county get back its land after 42 years.
The process to reinstate ownership of the 289 acres of Wasini island back to the family is currently underway.
In 1969, the Saggaf family obtained the land under registration number Kwale/Wasini island/W/33 but the land officers mistakenly reallocated the same number to other individuals in 1978.
The land was sub-divided into 87 plots by the ministry of lands in 1978 and deeds allocated to a new group. The family has since then been in and out of court in attempts to reclaim the land over the last four decades.
They first challenged the reallocation in a suit at the high court in 1981. In July 1995, the land was given back to them and in 1997 the court revoked the title deeds issued after the subdivision.
The first meeting between the committee in charge of the land in question and surveyors was held on March 19, 2020, and they scheduled to start the process on April 7, 2020. They had to halt since the Covid-19 pandemic posed challenges.
Lunga Lunga Deputy Commissioner Alaason Hussein authorized surveyors to resume working on the land in a letter dated February 7,2021.
"This is to help deliver justice that has been delayed for long, justice delayed is justice denied," he said. However, the surveyors did show up.
Kwale county surveyor Herbert Ndolo defended his team saying that they had attended a consultative meeting with Hussein.
A move to conduct a survey was on Monday, March 1 was hampered by alleged chaos caused by residents on the land The family denied the allegations claiming that there are no residents on the land save for hoteliers.
"We are waiting for the government to survey the land and then we stop the operations of seven tourist hotels in our land," said the family spokesman Mohamed Maula Saggaf.
On March 2, 2021 he wrote to the Coast Regional Commissioner John Elungata seeking the acceleration of the survey to get their land back saying that it has taken too long.
