[Source: Daily Nation, by Brian Ocharo]
More than 500 families are now facing eviction from land said to belong to former assistant minister Basil Criticos.
This comes after Mr Criticos renewed his plans to repossess the 1,000 hectares of land in Taita Taveta County which he claims was illegally allocated to the residents.
The former Taveta MP on Wednesday asked a Mombasa court to give him time to get a land surveyor to prove encroachment, ownership and the damages he has suffered as a result of the invasion.
In his court documents, the former legislator wants the title deed issued to the locals by the county director of settlements cancelled and the ownership of the property reverted to him.
Mr Criticos, who has filed the case at the Environment and Land Court in Mombasa, claims that the locals were erroneously issued with the documents, which ought to be cancelled.
Following the alleged encroachment, the former lawmaker says that he has been unable to utilise the portion of the land that the squatters have illegally occupied.
African Inland Church Makutano, Attorney-General Kihara Kariuki and Mubuyuni Primary School are some of the defendants listed in the suit.
Mr Criticos has also sued Third Engineering Bureau of China, the company that built the Mwatate-Taveta road, for allegedly encroaching on his land and causing destruction. He wants the company to compensate him for damages he suffered after it encroached on his land.
Through his lawyer Oscar Avedi, the former MP wants the land registration department stopped from issuing the documents to the residents until the case he has filed against 40 individuals is heard and determined.
He also wants the permanent structures erected on the land removed and the occupants stopped from building houses or dividing the property.
He said that despite knowing that he is in possession of the original title deed for the property, the Land ministry proceeded to prepare title deeds and issued them to the locals.
According to court documents produced by the defendants, Mr Criticos sold the land in 1990 to the Settlement Trust Fund Trustee and it was later consolidated with another one to form Lake Jipe Settlement Scheme.
It was then that this land was subdivided and allocated to the locals, who in turn paid for the processing of title deeds.
The parties in the dispute have been given time to file the documents they will rely on in the case.
The case will be heard on November 20.
[Full article: Daily Nation, by Brian Ocharo]
