NLC's ill-fated move to withdraw Angata titles led to protests

In February 2019, the National Land Commission in a Gazette Notice dated March 1, 2019, ordered for revocation of land titles in Moyoi and Section C adjudication area in Narok County.

Locals protested the decision and moved to court filing four petitions in objection. In the four petitions, residents sought orders quashing NLC’s decision ordering revocation of the titles in regards to the lands.

Angata Barigoi Farmers’ Co-operative Society and 243 others named NLC, Tende Community Welfare Association and the Attorney General as respondents. Chief Land Registrar, Ministry of Lands, Director Settlement and Adjudication and Munyonge Hana Haki were interested parties. The residents also sought conservatory orders directing NLC, Tende Community Welfare Association, the AG and the interested parties from interfering with the titles of Angata Barigoi Farmers titles.

Angata farmers claimed they are beneficiaries of land allocated to them through adjudication, which was declared way back in 1986 and were issued with title deeds, thereby affirming their ownership rights enshrined in the 2010 Constitution. The farmers noted that Tende community never challenged the declaration of the Adjudication Sections, adding that the determination by NLC to recommend a cancellation and/or revocation of their titles deeds came as a shocker.

NLC in response to the first petition, said it received a complaint of historical land injustice from Tende community, which was duly registered as Historical Land Injustice Ref No. NLC/HLI/019/2017. The community claimed that in 1946, members of the Kuria community purchased a portion of land from the Siria Maasai who were their neighbours, through an exchange of livestock and thereafter, a boundary was demarcated. They pleaded that the original inhabitants of the portion of land known as the Section C Adjudication and Angata Barigoi Adjudication Sections were the Tende people, who were a clan within the Kuria community.

The Tende added that in the 1980s, the government declared various adjudications by sections, which included the portions of land reserved for use by the Siria Maasai and the Kuria community and in the process of adjudication brought in other communities who were then allocated huge parcels of land.

They claimed upon the adjudication by the government, the Kuria community which includes Tende were forcefully evicted from their ancestral homes due to the inequitable adjudication process which was marred with irregularity and illegality hence resulting to the Historical Injustice against the Kuria Community.

NLC said it undertook hearing and invited members of Angata farmers and it was upon undertaking the appropriate hearings and doing thorough investigations that it was satisfied that a Historical Injustice had indeed been perpetuated against the Tende Community.

NLC admitted that Angata farmers’ society members hold valid ownership documents but stated that their right to own property under Article 40 of the Constitution was not absolute if the said property had been acquired irregularly, illegally and/or constitutes historical injustice.

In another petition filed in April 2019, members of the Kalenjin community claimed they had been in occupation of various portions of land within the Masaai community from way back in 1905 and had been assimilated in their areas of occupation. They also wanted NLC’s recommendation to have their titles cancelled. NLC and the Tende community opposed the application.

The Director of Settlement and Adjudication also opposed the Kalenjin community petition. It stated that they did not have a problem with the determination of NLC and requested that they be considered in the adjudication of the two Adjudication Sections known as Angata Barigoi Adjudication Section and Section C Adjudication Section (now known as Moyoi Adjudication Section. Kilgoris Environment and Lands Court Judge Emmanuel Washe, after hearing of the case, noted that NLC violated Angata Farmers' rights.

The court quashed NLC’s determination under historical land injustice claim pronounced on February 7, 2019 and published in the Kenya Gazette Notice No. 1550 dated March 1, 2019 recommending cancellation of ownership documents issued in Angata Barigoi Adjudication Sections and Moyoi Adjudication Sections.

“A Permanent Injunction be and is hereby issued prohibiting the 1st – 3rd (NLC, Tende Community Welfare Association, and the AG) and Interested Parties from implementing the quashed determination by NLC in the proceedings referenced as NLC/HLI/019/2017 in regards to the Petitioners’ ownership documents and generally all titles issued in Angata Barigoi Adjudication Sections and Moyoi Adjudication Sections,” read the judgment issued on February 27, 2025.