Here is how NATION media reported in 21 May 2013
The regime of Kenya’s first president, Jomo Kenyatta, was riddled with land grabbing which was perpetrated by him for his benefit and members of his family.
The Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission report says that the injustice also benefitted other political leaders from other tribes.
The report released Tuesday revealed that between 1964 and 1966, one-sixth of European settlers’ lands that were intended for settlement of landless and land-scarce Africans were cheaply sold to the then President Kenyatta and his wife Ngina as well as his children.
The report says that throughout the years of President Kenyatta’s administration, his relatives friends and officials in his administration also benefitted from the vice with wanton impunity.
Retired President Daniel arap Moi, who succeeded President Kenyatta at the helm of the country’s leadership, was also a beneficiary.
Other leaders who engaged in the pratice were Mbiyu Koinange, Ronald Ngala, Oginga Odinga, through the Luo Thrift and Trading Company, Gikonyo Kiano, J.M. Kariuki, Masinde Muliro and Paul Ngei.
Reads the report; “Kenyatta himself appears to have benefited immensely from irregular allocations of land that should have benefited those who lost land to Arab and British colonisers.’
Settler farms
“By 1965, Kenyatta is reported to have been using his position as president to buy numerous settler farms in the White Highlands and also excising and allocating to himself and family government forest land in Kiambu,†went on the report.
“President Kenyatta’s direct engagement in irregular land allocations compromised his position to prevent or remedy similar cases of land grabbing by his close associates,†the report adds.
It says Kenyatta personally approved the purchase of large farms by his family in the Rift Valley, exempting the transactions from review by the respective land control boards.
In the process, his family acquired vast farms in Nakuru, Njoro and Rongai areas in the Rift Valley.
Moreover, adds the report, the President and his family owned several beach plots and hotels on the Coast where, as previously stated, many African communities lost their land, first, to Arabs and later to Europeans, rendering many landless, to this day.
AND here is HOW the STANDARD reported in 20th August 2013
By PAMELA CHEPKEMEI
KENYA: Information implicating two of President Uhuru Kenyatta’s relatives named in a report by the Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC) over land acquisition cannot be expunged.
The TJRC has told the court that the orders sought to expunge the names and adverse reports on Ngengi Muigai and his sister Beth Mugo cannot be granted because the implementation stage will be done by the National Land Commission (NLC).
The two want the report linking them to illegal acquisition of public land quashed.
Wedding gift
The two petitioners through their lawyer Jennifer Shamalla want the court to compel TJRC to provide evidence to prove its allegations that Jomo Kenyatta grabbed public land and dished it out to relatives.
TJRC in response to the case said the NLC has the legal and independent jurisdiction to look at the matters afresh, and the two petitioners shall be accorded a further opportunity to make representations in their favour before the institution.
Muigai and Mugo have separately filed cases seeking to have sections of the report mentioning them adversely, expunged.
Yesterday, Justice Majanja informed the parties that all the legal disputes against TJRC arising from the report and touching on land issues will be consolidated and heard together.
The cases will be mentioned on Monday for further directions.
Muigai has sued TJRC for claiming in its report that the late President Jomo Kenyatta gave him a parcel of land unlawfully as a wedding gift.
Muigai a nephew of Kenyatta wants the court to compel TJRC to produce evidence that he was given land as a wedding gift. He is challenging allegations that he irregularly acquired land in Karura forest in 1997.
He argues that TJRC acted without jurisdiction in coming up with findings that are prejudicial to him without affording him an opportunity to be heard.
Mugo on the other hand denies TJRC allegations that she acquired prime public land at the Coast irregularly. She said she owns property in Nyali, but she purchased it jointly with her husband Nicholas Mugo.
The two also want the section of the TJRC report mentioning them adversely, expunged. They said the report on them is inaccurate. Muigai has named the TJRC, Inspector General of Police, CID Director and the Attorney General as respondents.