Kenyatta family feuds over land

First President Mzee Jomo Kenyatta has been accused of grabbing a three and a half acres of land from his cousin.

In documents filed in court, Mr Peter Mungai Ngengi (Wakameme), says his father’s land at Ichaweri, Gatundu District of Kiambu County, was seized by Mzee.

Mr Mungai is the son of Ngengi Kungu, a brother of Jomo Kenyatta. He says that the land was passed on to him by his father, now deceased.

He claims that the land was wrongly alienated and granted to Mzee by the Ministry of Lands, but he retained his own title which survived the alleged illegal acquisition.

Mr Mungai sued Mama Ngina Kenyatta and President Uhuru Kenyatta in their capacity as the estate administrators.

“Subsequently the late Jomo Kenyatta and the Ministry of Lands caused the petitioner’s land to be merged into one big piece of land now known as Ngenda Kimuyu/982 to make a home... popularly known as Ikulu or the Gatundu home of Jomo Kenyatta,” he said.

UPROOTED

“After the death of our father Ngengi, Mzee gave orders that before his body was lowered into the grave, the beacons dividing my land and his land should be uprooted,” Mr Mungai said.

He claims that the first President compulsorily acquired the land and asked the ministry to register it “but failed to publish the intended acquisition in a Kenya Gazette notice thereby rendering the seizure irregular, unlawful and illegal”.

“The ministry in collaboration with the first President discreetly proceeded to have the title revoked and they wrongly alienated the land belonging to the petitioner and had it registered in the names of his wife and son, Uhuru,” Mr Mungai says.

However, in opposition to the suit, Mama Ngina Kenyatta says that Mr Mungai is full of conjecture.

Together with her son Uhuru, she says the claim cannot be continued since the law grants immunity to a sitting president.

Mr Justice Joseph Onguto gave December 8, as the hearing date for the preliminary objection filed by Mama Ngina Kenyatta.