By Wahome Thuku via FB
ADRIAN GILBERT MUTESHI
The death of Adrian Gilbert Muteshi on Tuesday would probably have passed unnoticed. But the unfortunate events that trailed his life since 1992 have put his demise on the headlines.
Way back, in January 1968 Muteshi bought a 100-acre farm in Turbo West in the Uasin Gishu District specifically in Kaptabei Scheme.
The property consisted of a permanent self-contained six bed room house, staff quarters and an external store, external kitchen with an external firewood cylinder and water heating equipment.
The house was on a 2-acre plot while the actual farm land consisted of 4 plots Nos. 33, 34, 35, and 36 all within Kaptabei Scheme which was later on renamed Kapsagoi Scheme.
He made the requisite payments as required by the government and the Settlement Fund Trustees.
Muteshi was given the land on 15th of October 1968 followed by a letter of allotment dated 26th October 1968 by the Settlement officer Kaptabei Scheme.
Muteshi and his family settled on the farm. They fenced it and begun cultivating it and planting crops. He bought farm equipment, a tractor, a plough, a harrow, a trailer, Ayrshire dairy cattle, sheep and goats.
They became members of KCC and KFA. They would deliver produce and milk to KCC. Muteshi completed payment for the property loan in December 1988.
The government later amalgamated all the parcels in one piece – Uasin Gishu/Tapasagoi/33 and issued his with a Title Deed on 17th March, 1989. He used the Title Deed to secure a loan from the Agricultural Finance Corporation.
On 29th December 2004 the outstanding loan balance was written off the, title deed discharged and released to him.
In 1992 following tribal clashes in the Turbo West area of the Uasin Gishu District, the farm was raided and Muteshi’s animals stolen.
Muteshi continued farming but on reduced scale fearing for the security of his staff on the farm.
This state of affairs continued until January 2008 when again after the disputed elections of December 2007 the farm was invaded by Kalenjin tribesmen (the words used by court) who drove away Muteshi’s dairy cattle, sheep and goats and took away his tractors and farm tools and equipment.
The said tribesmen chased away his staff under threats of brutal death. His efforts to regain possession of the property were thwarted as his workers were threatened with death should they return to the farm in Eldoret South Constituency.
Muteshi made inquiries and got information from some previous workers and neighbours that the people who had invaded his farm were brought by one William Samoei Ruto the MP for Eldoret North and a cabinet minister at the time.
Muteshi tried to conduct a search at the lands office in Eldoret but lands official refused to give him a certificate of official search.
On the 4th March, 2010 he wrote to the Commissioner of Lands in Nairobi seeking assistance in officially identifying the persons who had wrongfully sub-divided and claimed ownership of his land.
The Lands Commissioner forwarded a copy of the letter for an urgent response to the District Land Registrar Uasin Gishu (Eldoret).
The said officer responded through a letter on 8th June, 2010 when he disclosed that according to records in Eldoret the land title was opened on 23rd June, 1980.
That on 20th August, 2007 the title deed was transferred to one Dorothy Jemutai Yator after paying Ksh130,000 for it. She had then subdivided it to 9 plots Uasin Gishu/Tapsagoi/957-965 and transferred the parcels to William Ruto.
The transfer had been backdated to 14th May 2003 but lodged for registration on 20th August 2007. It was registered on the same day. The mutation for the subdivision had been registered on 28th November 2007 way before the 2007 elections.
Dorothy had used postal address 6884, Nairobi which belonged to one Karanja Mercy Wanjiku.
This confirmed Muteshi’s fears that his land had been fraudulently subdivided and sold to Ruto who had a bountiful harvest in 2009.
According to the statistics in the Ministry of Agriculture and Kenya Seed Company at that time the average output of maize in Turbo region was 42 bags per acre and the price was about Kshs. 2,300 per bag of maize.
Muteshi was informed by Ruto’s workers that the MP had purchased the farm from Dorothy and subdivided it into 9 titles.
Muteshi’s investigation revealed that on the 18th September, 2008 Dorothy applied for consent to transfer the plots to Ruto who was already in occupation of the land.
On 19th October 2010, Muteshi filed a case at the High Court suing Ruto, the government, Dorothy and land Surveyor Patrick Opiyo Odero.
Source: KENYAGIST.COM