Residents of Gatundu South have reached an agreement with the government over the disputed Mama Ngina University land.
On Saturday, April 9, the residents met with officials and stakeholders from the university who guided them on the compensation formula and process.
Further, the residents were advised by financial planners on how best to spend the money they will receive as compensation.
The residents noted that they have agreed to move out after intense consultations with the region's Deputy County Commissioner, further noting that they were first apprehensive since they did not want to lose their ancestral land.
Others explained that they have buried their family members on their parcels of land and were not comfortable relocating and leaving their graves behind.
But after consultations with traditional leaders and the church, the residents will be moving with hefty cheques from the government.
The residents and landowners lost a case against Mama Ngina University through a court ruling delivered on Tuesday, February 22.
The Environment and Lands Court sitting in Thika ruled that the residents bypassed other avenues of resolving the dispute by rushing to court seeking orders to block the university from acquiring their said parcels.
The court directed the matter to the National Lands Commission (NLC) Land Adjudication Tribunal that was set to give the final verdict on how the families would be relocated.
The residents of Mutomo area of Gatundu South constituency had sued the national government for not conducting public participation before selecting their parcels of land for acquisition.
Over 2,500 families had sued NLC, the Ministry of Education, the Commission for University Education, and Mama Ngina University college.
In the suit, the residents wanted the acquisition of the land blocked arguing that some of the owners of the pieces of land earmarked were owned by elderly people and there were over 100 graves.
They further detailed that some of them were not consulted in the process of placing their land on compulsory acquisition. The national government on the other hand released a gazette notice informing the families of the plan to acquire their land.
