8,000 members of a Saving and Credit Cooperation (SACCO) have rekindled their hopes of getting a share of a 1,418-acre piece of land that they were scammed by the management of a Sacco over 22 years ago.
This followed a ruling by the Environment and Land Court in Meru that effectively declared a transfer of the 1,418 acres if land that happened in 1999 by the then Sacco's chairman as “illegal, invalid, null and void from the beginning”.
The woes of the members of the now defunct farmers' Sacco located in Meru started in 1999 when they were waiting for the land to be subdivided during the liquidation of the society that kicked off in 1999.
Unbeknownst to them, a plot was being hatched by a section of the society's leadership to grab the prime property.
According to court documents in a suite filed by an aggrieved former member of the society, the prime property is now occupied by hundreds of landowners who bought their pieces while the genuine owners were battling in court.
When the Sacco decided to liquidate in May 13, 1999, they appointed Francis Mambo Gatumo as the liquidator but the society officials failed to hand over the land for liquidation, claiming that it belonged to a few individuals.
Five years later, a former member of the society sued the former chairman for illegally transacting on the society's land even after its liquidation.
The former members of the Sacco are accusing the then chairman for transacting on behalf of the members long after the Sacco became defunct.
The scheme appears to have received backing from the liquidator, who swore an affidavit explaining why the original land title deed bore the name of the society.
Former members of the defunct Cooperative Society are now calling on the government to help them recover the expansive land.
The society had bought the land in 1967 and was registered as LR No. 7143 (now LR No. Timau/Timau/Block 71-763).
The land is located along the Likii River at the border of Meru and Laikipia near Nanyuki town.
