Lands PS summoned over 14,000-acre land dispute

Lands Principal Secretary Nixon Korir has been summoned by a Nakuru court to provide a report on the settlement of a 14,000-acre land dispute that has dragged on for over two decades.

Justice Anthony Ombwayo of the Environment and Land Court in Nakuru directed the PS to appear before him on October 30, 2025, to produce the Banita Settlement Scheme report.

The report is dated September 11, 2020. The court warned that failure by the PS to attend without a lawful excuse would attract “the consequences of non-attendance”.

“If you are summoned only to produce a document and not to give evidence, you shall be deemed to have complied with the summons if you cause such document to be produced in this court on the day and hour aforesaid,” read the summons in part.

The directive comes amid pressure from beneficiaries, who have been urging the government to provide an update on the implementation of the adopted report.

On June 12, 2025, the beneficiaries, through lawyer Kipkoech Ng’etich, wrote to the PS claiming that some of their clients had been omitted from the final list of beneficiaries. They said the omissions risked unfairly reallocating their parcels to other people.

“It has come to our attention that there is a final list of beneficiaries of the Banita Settlement Scheme submitted to the Office of the Land Adjudication and Settlement–Nairobi for registration and issuance of titles, which list omits names of several petitioners,” the letter reads in part.

Ng’etich requested the Lands office to review, reconcile, and harmonise the final list in compliance with court orders and to protect those omitted from losing their land.

On August 14, 2025, Ng’etich wrote another letter to the Attorney General, noting that his clients had not received any response on the implementation of the court order.

The prolonged disputes over the beneficiaries’ list have delayed the issuance of title deeds since the scheme’s establishment in 2002.

The settlement scheme, covering 14,115 acres, was purchased by the Settlement Fund Trustees from the Majani Mingi Group. After the land was surveyed, Letters of Offer were prepared but complaints soon arose over the beneficiary list.