[Source: Daily Nation, by John Kamau]
Battle for the future of the multi-billion shilling Del Monte pineapple plantation straddling Kiambu and Murang’a counties has taken a new twist after the Environment and Lands Court in Murang’a refused to stop the National Land Commission (NLC) and the two counties from renewing the expiring leases.
Justice Jemutai Kemei’s ruling was of importance since it not only laid basis on how courts will in future be addressing historical claims, but also settled a claim that was taking a political turn in both Kiambu and Murang’a.
Del Monte — one of the largest pineapple plantations in Africa — manages nine blocks of land, whose leases expire between 2019 and 2022.
In the first case, a group known as Kandara Residents Association was claiming 10,000 acres of the pineapple plantation and was opposed to a renewal of the lease before their claim before the NLC was settled.
The group had filed a memorandum of objection to the extension of the leases with NLC on grounds of historical injustice. They claimed that the plantations were part of communal land before it was alienated illegally.
They claimed that if the injunction was not granted, the historical injustice meted on the members would continue.
While the Kandara group had told the High Court that it lost the land during the colonial period, Del Monte said it acquired the land in 1968 and that it had made huge investments in the land in form of financial and human capital.
It also told the court that the case was time-barred since the land was adjudicated more than 120 years ago.
The group had relied on minutes of a meeting attended by the commission in which the NLC chairman said, “all requests and demands under the law and the Constitution must be addressed carefully not to give an indication that Kenya is working against the interests of foreign investors [and that] the request for 10,000 acres by Murang’a County Assembly and Kandara Residents leaders shall be subjected to the rights and interests of Del Monte as investors on the one hand and on the other hand those of Kandara Residents as stipulated by the law and the constitution.”
While dismissing the case, however, Justice Kemei said the group had no rights on the Del Monte property.
[Full article: Daily Nation, by John Kamau]
