Newz[Capital FM] Kisumu -- The Nubian community in Kibos, Kisumu, has won a long-running land dispute against Kenya Railways after the Supreme Court upheld earlier court decisions recognising the community's rights to the contested settlement. KISUMU, Kenya, Oct 26 — The Nubian community in Kibos, Kisumu, has won a long-running land dispute against Kenya Railways after the Supreme Court upheld earlier court decisions recognising the community’s rights to the contested settlement. The ruling, delivered on Friday, October 23, marks a major milestone for families who have lived on the land for generations but lost their homes, a nursery school and a mosque during a demolition operation in 2021.
Joshua Odiambo Nyamori, the advocate who represented the community, addressed residents on Monday, saying the Supreme Court decision left intact an Environment and Land Court ruling that recognised the community’s claim to the land. Nyamori said the community had been allocated the settlement in 1937, decades before Kenya Railways was granted the land it claimed to own. “We are here with excitement after the Supreme Court of Kenya pronounced itself on Friday that the land on which we stand belongs to the Nubian community living in Kibos,” he said.
He explained that the community’s settlement in Kisumu dates back to the colonial period, when the railway reached the lakeside town in the early 20th century. According to Nyamori, Nubian elders met the colonial administration in 1937, leading to the allocation of the current settlement to the community. He said the Environment and Land Court established that Kenya Railways was granted its land in 1963, after the community had already been allocated the settlement.
The court also found that the boundary separating the community’s settlement from railway land had been clearly marked. The dispute escalated in 2021 when homes and community facilities were demolished in an eviction operation that Nyamori said was carried out at night during the COVID-19 pandemic. “When the bulldozers started rolling over their houses, the nursery school and even the mosque, they reduced a thriving settlement to total ruins,” he said.
Nyamori recalled meeting elderly residents who had been left without shelter after the demolitions, describing the destruction as a severe blow to their dignity and livelihoods. He said the community subsequently moved to court seeking protection from eviction and recognition of its land rights. The Environment and Land Court found that the manner in which the demolitions were conducted violated residents’ constitutional rights, including the rights to hou…
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