[Article source: The Daily Nation, by: Barnabas Bii]
The Senate has initiated a process to push for the compensation of the Talai and Kipsigis for the land they lost to the British during the colonial era. Two Senate committees — Land, Environment and Natural Resources and Justice and Legal Affairs — Tuesday heard how the communities in Kericho and Bomet counties suffered, including being evicted from 25,000 acres of their ancestral land to make way for tea plantations.
The communities, through three claimants — Samwel Rugut, Robert Langat and Victor Bor — tabled a petition before the two committees sitting in Eldoret to have the land currently owned by James Finlay (Kenya) Ltd, Unilever Tea Kenya Ltd (Formerly Brooke Bond) and George Williamson Tea returned to them.
They want the Senate to approve investigations by the National Land Commission (NLC) and the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) on how the multinational tea companies in the two counties acquired the land, and plans to compensate the evicted families. Petitioners argued that their efforts to have the matter addressed by the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC) and the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) had proved futile, so they want the Senate to intervene and facilitate compensation for the atrocities committed against them.
