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Updates
Update:
14.10.2005
Update:
15.10.2005
Update: 15.10.2005
Court
stops President from issuing titles
The Standard
Saturday
October 15, 2005
By Francis Ngige
The High Court has stopped
President Mwai Kibaki from issuing land title deeds to members of
the Ogiek community.
Sitting in Nakuru, Justice Daniel
Musinga issued the prohibition order after some Ogiek community
members, claiming to have been left out of the exercise, sought
legal redress.
Ruling on an application brought
under a certificate of urgency, Musinga barred the Commissioner of
Lands from issuing the deeds until the suit is settled.
"There is sufficient proof
that the matter is urgent and leave is hereby granted to the
applicants to obtain orders of prohibition," he ruled.
A thousand members of the Ogiek
Welfare Council had sought that the settlement exercise be
conducted afresh, through lawyer Victoria Lagat.
They claimed the task force formed
to oversee the resettlement exercise was biased.
Yesterday, Justice Musinga granted
leave to the group to file an application seeking to have the
whole process conducted afresh.
He directed them to serve the
application to the Attorney General within 21 days.
Lagat had argued that the Ministry
of Lands should be stopped from interfering, subdividing or
issuing title deeds until the suit is heard.
She said some people allocated land
were not true Ogiek community members.
She claimed some of the
beneficiaries had been brought from other areas.
"Some of the beneficiaries of
land in the area are related to those who conducted the
resettlement," she said.
She said the exercise should be put
on hold until the list of beneficiaries is scrutinised.
In an affidavit supporting the
application, OWC chairman Kimaiyo Towett said some members of the
community would suffer if they were not allocated land.
14.10.2005
Court
stops issuance of title deeds
Story by NATION Correspondent
Publication Date: 10/14/2005
The Government was yesterday barred
from issuing title deeds to members of the Ogiek community.
The barring orders were issued by
the High Court against the Commissioner of Lands, the chief lands
registrar, the principal registrar of titles and the Rift Valley
provincial commissioner.
The judge also granted five members
of the community and an NGO leave to file a substantive suit
challenging the Government move to allocate land to non-Ogiek
members within 21 days. He ordered that the exercise be halted
pending the hearing and determination of the suit.
Public rally
President Kibaki is scheduled to
issue the title deeds to 12,000 members of the community on
Saturday at a public rally in Olenguruone area.
The orders were issued by Nakuru
resident judge, Mr Justice Daniel Musinga, following an
application lodged by five people in conjunction with the Ogiek
Welfare Council, an NGO.
The five applicants are Mr Wilson
Kipsoi Kimeto, Mr Charles Kipkurui Too, Mr Peter Rono, Mr Julius
Kipruto and Mr Richard Tanui.
The applicants claimed some genuine
members would miss the allocations because non-members had been
included in the list.
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