Lavington Primary School appeals for Gov’t intervention in 15-year land dispute

The management of Lavington Primary School is appealing to the Ministry of Lands to fast-track the process of confirming ownership of a disputed parcel of land between Kensom Holdings Company and the school.

The dispute over the land has continued for more than 15 years despite the National Lands Commission (NLC) revoking a title deed held by the company in 2017 and saying the land is reserved for the school.

“They have tried taking down the wall on the far side of the wall of our property, they have tried to come and interfere, sometimes send their people to come to survey the land and cut their structures," June Keriri, a board member at Lavington Primary School said.

The school administration noted that the latest attempt to take over their land was early this year when the company’s advocates wrote a demand letter to the Chairman of the Board of Management on January 23, 2025.

“They came with a letter giving us seven days to give back the land to them and they told us it belongs to them and we have built an illegal structure on their land and as you can see it is within the school compound so can it not be ours and is within the school boundaries," Keiri added.

In 2017 through a gazette notice, the title deed issued to Kensom Holdings Company LR. No. 3734/596 was revoked by the National Lands Commission and allocated the land to the Treasury Cabinet Secretary to hold in trust for Lavington Primary as it was reserved for the school.

In a follow-up letter dated September 16, 2024, the commission which had received a request to process land documentation for the parcel of land asked Lands Cabinet Secretary Alice Wahome to confirm the ownership status through the Chief Land Registrar and the Director of Survey.

Further, the commission sought guidance on reconciling the claims made by Kensom Holdings with the existing documentation for Lavington Primary School.

“People with titles for Nyali Secondary land, listen to me. I am coming to Mombasa to recover the land belonging to Nyali School. We are also recovering land belonging to Lavington Primary School in Nairobi," CS Wahome said.

Kensom Holdings insisted it had legal ownership of the land by leasing it from the defunct Nairobi City Council for Ksh.5 million in 2007.

“The County of Nairobi demarcated this property to all these people who are here…the school being one of them, my clients are the beneficial owners of the property. They are so confident that this is their property and at the end of the day we will have our rights and if the school is doing ABCD we will be compensated," Abdirazak Mohamed, a lawyer at Kensom Holdings noted.

With both parties claiming ownership of the land, the ball now is in CS Wahome's court to intervene over the issue.