7,500 families have been rescued from mass eviction by Kenya Defence Forces 78 Battalion.
According to a report published on Sunday, May 16, KDF was stopped from carrying out any further evictions on the 17,000-acre parcel of land in Tigania East, Meru County.
The orders were issued by the Land and Environment Court in a case filed by 13 of the victims.
The team went to court in early May to protest the KDF’s decision to take over the parcel, claiming that the battalion had already begun evicting residents.
The petitioners claimed in court documents that they were being evicted without any justification and that the army had illegally dug trenches on the land.
They also claimed that some of the respondents mentioned in the suit including Cabinet Secretaries, visited the land on a regular basis with surveyors.
“They have illegally obtained a lease title no. 27098 and that they are using this lease title to legitimise their illegal actions.
“If the actions of the respondents are left to continue, the petitioners, who live on the said land and have developed the same so extensively, will be displaced and be rendered landless,” the complainants stated.
The petitioners, the majority of whom are peasant farmers, also claimed that they were threatened with unknown consequences if they did not vacate the land in time.
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