Retired Teacher Mzee Michael Siror and Former Kanu-Era DO Jeremiah Cheruiyot in a Land Ownership Tussle

Two families are tussling over the ownership of a sh 1.6 billion prime agricultural parcel of land along the border of Trans Nzoia and Uasin Gishu counties.

The 716 acres of disputed land spanning 45 years is pitting a 93-year-old retired teacher Mzee Michael Bett Siror and former District Officer under the Kanu rein, Jeremiah Cheruiyot over a section of the vast land.

Mr Cheruiyot claims that he owes nothing to Mzee Siror having cleared all his dues to him and the balance to AFC.

Cheruiyot termed it as injustice, a move by Mzee Siror to deny him the full share of his land vowing that he will not rest until he gets justice for what belongs to him.

This was after he led hundreds of protesters at the disputed land who were demanding their rightful shares of the property.

There was tension and anxiety at the farm as the enraged families who were carrying twigs and placards accused police officers of siding with Mzee Siror in the matter instead of being neutral.

“Instead of the police officers helping to restore law and order, they are standing by as hired goons armed with machetes evict us from our land,” cried Cheruiyot.

The former administrator accused Mzee Siror of failing to remit money they were paying as a group towards offsetting the AFC loan and instead pocketed the same.

“We discovered later on that the money we were paying AFC through Mzee Siror, he was not remitting the same to the state corporation but instead pocketing it,” claimed Cheruiyot.

He defended his record in public service where he served for more than 30 years saying that he has never been involved or mentioned in any land-related scam.

Cheruiyot claimed that a section of land had been forcibly reclaimed by Mzee Siror using the police officers where some of his crops including the plantation of commercial trees had been felled down.

“Mediation talks directed by the judiciary in the past have collapsed after Mzee Siror remained adamant he would not cede even an acre of the vast property to the complainants,” he said.

Mzee Siror claims that he is the legal owner of the property he claims to have acquired in 1969 from the Estates and Investments (1961) Limited after paying 25% of the sale price, levies and fees amounting to KES 44,000 the balance of 108,000 financed by Agricultural Finance Corporation which was to be repaid over a period of 20 years, which he fully settled without any assistance and subsequently discharged and obtained his title. He thereafter subdivided the land into 17 portions.

”In 1976, Mr. Jeremiah Cheruiyot and his partner Mr. Stephen Sugut visited me at home and expressed interest in purchasing land. They were introduced to me by my neighbour Mr. Isaac Busienei who was a relative of Stephen Sugut. He expressed interest to purchase 100 acres for both his friends in a joint sale agreement which was executed by Lawyer Wafula.”

After executing the agreement, Jeremiah Cheruiyot was to pay a deposit of Kshs 18,000.00 instead of a 20,000 deposit on record, which deposit was 47% (equivalent to 21 acres) of the purchase price. The balance of 53% of the purchase price has never been paid to date. On several occasions thereafter, Jeremiah Cheruiyot attempted to fraudulently acquire the whole parcel of land measuring 716 acres through pretense, impersonations, forgeries, abuse of Government machinery, intimidation, coercion, harassment, assault, intimidation, and countless arrests and spending nights in police custody at his whims without justifiable reason. He mainly used his powers being a powerful DO together with his partner who was an aide to the Attorney General of the late Charles Njonjo and later a senior member of the Moi Presidential Escort.

He castigated the former administrators for inciting hundreds of hired goons to invade his property and claim ownership for the same in a scheme to depose him from his property. He tried several times to forge my signatures to produce fraudulent titles to illegitimately acquire ownership of my land.

“It is unfortunate that the person I sold to part of my land has now turned against me and given me a nightmare by inciting members of the public to invade and set ablaze my crops including the fence for my homestead,” Mzee Siror decried.

“Two weeks ago, I was attacked by a group of goons armed with bows, arrows, and matchboxes and went ahead and set fire to a section of my sugarcane plantation,” he said. Some suspects were arrested taken to court and charged with criminal activities. Jeremiah Cheruiyot has been organizing goons to attack me and calls the press to claim he is the one being attacked.

Mzee Siror says that instead of enjoying his wealth, he has been subjected to endless police and judiciary battles by his tormentors as he fights to retain ownership of his multi-billion shillings property. He wonders why no deterrent action was taken against the arsonists despite being arrested, a fact that has emboldened the same goons to launch another attack where another four were arrested but to date again, the goons and arsonists are walking around scot free and with great confidence that their criminal case will never progress.

However, the former Cherangany Chief Fredrick Boit maintained that the land in contention belongs to Mzee Siror who sold a section of the property to some families including the former DO, Mr. Jeremiah Cheruiyot.

“I am aware of the prime land whose section of it is at the center of a long-standing ownership dispute. The said property is registered under the Mzee Michael Siror name,” said Boit.

He said that he had dealt with the matter for many years and that by the time he retired more than 15 years ago, the issue was yet to be resolved among the feuding parties. He however acknowledges that Mr. Siror should have been allowed to subdivide the farm to the purchasers and those who don’t agree with the acreage should seek court intervention instead of hiring goons to attack Mr. Siror

We interrogated some neighbors who confirmed that the farm belonged to Mr. Siror and Jeremiah Cheruiyot was occupying more acreage of land by force and trouble ensued when the sons of Mzee Bett hived off their land, and fenced it off. They have since taken possession of their rightful share.

Trans Nzoia County Police Commander Steve Oloo defended his officers against claims that they were taking sides in the disputed property saying that they must maintain law and order

“We have absolutely no interest in the suite property and our duty is only to protect lives and
property from being destroyed by disgruntled elements,” added Oloo.