Residents protest delay in Eastern Mau beaconing as deadline nears

The process of delineation of the boundary between settlement schemes and forest in the Eastern Mau has stalled.

With only a month to the set deadline as directed by the Environment and Lands Courts, locals now claim the government is yet to abide by the court decision delivered on September 30, 2024.

The locals, through lawyer Kipkoech Ng’etich, in a letter to the Attorney General, claim the government is yet to complete the beaconing process to demarcate the over 35,300-hectare parcel of land from the Eastern Mau forest.

They note that surveyors deployed to the area did not adhere to the Registry Index Map of 2001 during beaconing.

“The surveyors from the Ministry of Lands did not adhere to the Registry Index Map of 2001 in beckoning Teret, Sigaon of Nessuit and Likia Extension scheme,” read the letter dated August 21, 2025.

Kipkoech noted that his clients are apprehensive that the Kenya Forest Service has commenced operations to plant trees within the 35,301 hectares in the Baraget area against court orders.

“It is, therefore, in the interest of justice that the judgment dated September 30, 2024 is complied with as it had been directed that compliance by the Ministries of Interior and Lands be done within 12 months, which is a month away,” read the letter.

He noted that while the government made efforts to comply with the judgment, the same has been lackadaisical and opaque.

Through the lawyer, the locals in the settlement schemes have given the government a 14-day ultimatum to provide a status report on the implementation of the judgment of the court delivered in September 2024.

They also want the government to give an action plan towards the implementation of the judgment and a survey report following the beaconing by surveyors from various government departments.

The residents filed a suit in 2020 seeking to stop their eviction.

Nessuit MCA Samuel Tonui, on behalf of the locals and through lawyers Ngetich and Renny Langat, said they occupied the land following the excision of 35,301 hectares by Katana Ngala, then Minister for Environment, on October 8, 2001, through Legal Notice Number 142.

In this case, residents wanted to stop the government from evicting them. They also wanted the government to revisit the intended degazettement of January 30, 2001, Legal Notice No 889 published on February 16, 2001, by the then Minister for Environment, Francis Nyenze.

Lawyer Ngetich told the court to revisit Legal Notice No. 142 of 2001 by Katana Ngala, issued in August 2001.

Justice John Mutungi ruled that the settlers proved that they were legally settled in Nessuit, Marioshoni, Sururu, Likia, Sigotik, and Terit settlement schemes measuring 35,301 hectares.

The court ordered the government to move into the Eastern Mau within 12 months, re-establish the boundaries and ensure those within it have legal land ownership documents.

Further, Mutungi ordered the government to establish and delineate the boundaries by physically placing beacons.

He directed the government, through the Ministry of Interior and Land and Housing to verify and authenticate allottees of land within settlement schemes and issue titles to those without.

“Such titles issued to the persons settled on the land were valid and should be respected,” he ruled

However, the court ordered those found outside the boundaries and encroaching into the forest land to vacate, failure to which the Kenya Forest Service (KFA) will be at liberty to evict them under the Land Act.

The court also warned all those with valid title deeds within the settlement scheme to ensure they do not interfere with the riparian reserve or any rivers flowing through their land.

“Landowners within the schemes shall be required to replace the tree cover in their parcels of land to a minimum of 30 percent of the land within the next 60 months,” he directed.

The court ordered the Interior Ministry, KFA, National Environment Management Authority (NEMA), and Water Resources Management Authority (WRMA) to oversee the implementation of the tree cover.