JKIA woes piles as the land owner demands for compensation worth billions

The National Lands Commission (NLC) has recommended that the family of the late Beatrice Syokau Kathumba, be compensated for 50.2 acres of JKIA land, which is worth billions of shillings.

 “The family of the late John Makuthi Kathumba who laid a claim on parcel LR No. 7075/3 within the JKIA land should be compensated on basis of a valid squatter claim on the land,” the NLC’s recommendation read.

Syokau’s daughters, Litha Kathumba and Amina Mbula had waged a spirited battle in court and before the NLC in a bid to regain their land, which they claimed was part of their inheritance.

In their petition, the sisters complained that the land that originally belonged to their father Makuthi had been taken over by JKIA and other claimants who were strangers.

The late John Katumbi’s surviving daughters, from left, Litha Katumbi, Amina Mbula and Evelyne Muthike.

According to Daily Active, Syokau had inherited her husband’s estate after his demise in 1989 but lost the huge chunk of prime land to some corrupt land officers and powerful individuals.

The two detailed how their family had lost the land through a complex web of fraud and deception, which had climaxed with their mother’s abduction from her home near Cabanas along Mombasa Road.

Syokau was finally traced four years later after the daughters were tipped that she was admitted at Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) and was critically ill. She died a peasant on July 3, 2014, aged 89.

After her death, the burial permit was allegedly given to the people accused of abducting and causing her death, triggering a row which has delayed her burial to date. Her body is still in a mortuary in Machakos

The commission has not however resolved the mystery surrounding Syokau’s disappearance and death which is the subject of an inquest before chief magistrate HM Nyaga at Makandara Law Courts.

The court is set to give its ruling on March 18.

The late Beatrice Syokau Kathumba

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