The Nyalilbei Farm Dispute: Land, History, and Conflict in Uasin Gishu

By William Kiptoo

The Nyalilbei Farm dispute in Uasin Gishu County is one of the longest-running land conflicts in the Rift Valley. It has run through the courts since 1993, and it reflects the deep tensions over land ownership, settlement, identity and justice in post-colonial Kenya. What began as a disagreement between two groups who bought a farm together has become a legal, political and humanitarian problem involving hundreds of families, competing title deeds and repeated threats of eviction.

The farm lies near Moi's Bridge in the Soy area of Uasin Gishu County and is registered as LR No. 8312 Nyalilbei Farm. Three acreage figures appear in court papers and press reports, and they refer to different things. The whole farm is 909 acres. The court decree divides it into a 606-acre portion for one group and a 303-acre portion for the other, and some reports round the larger portion to 600 acres. Over the decades the farm became a settled community with homes, schools, churches, farms and small trading centres, and by the time the conflict became public, a generation had grown up on it.

The sign for Nyalilbei Primary School and PMCA Church, in an NTV Kenya news report on residents' protests. Screenshot: NTV Kenya.

The origins of the dispute go back to the years just after independence in 1963, when many European settlers sold their farms in the former White Highlands. According to press reports, Nyalilbei was bought in 1965 from a departing settler by two groups together, one Maasai and one Kalenjin. Records kept by the seller's advocate, as reported by NTV and the Nation, give the Maasai group 606 acres and the Kalenjin group 303 acres in proportion to their contributions. The Maasai group was led by Kachero Ole Makala, who died in 2021 aged 94. Some residents give a different account, saying that the farm was leased in 1965 rather than bought.

Residents date their settlement on the farm to the 1970s and its subdivision to 1990. In 2020 David Kiplagat, then Speaker of the Uasin Gishu County Assembly and later MP for Soy, told The Star that the farm was subdivided in 1990 and that genuine title deeds were issued to 250 families. Residents say they bought their plots in good faith, that government offices processed their documents, and that they have lived and farmed there for decades.

As settlement grew, the dispute became a conflict between a claim based on the original purchase and a claim based on long occupation and registered titles. Many families believe that decades on the land, together with title deeds issued by government offices, give them the right to stay.

The main court case, Eldoret High Court Civil Suit 210 of 1993, was brought by Kachero Ole Makala and 17 others against George Kipteng. The Nation reports that the dispute was referred to the Kapseret Land Disputes Tribunal, which in 2003 awarded 606 acres to the Maasai group and 303 acres to the Kalenjin group. After George Kipteng died, administrators of his estate took over the defence. On 18 January 2021 the parties signed a consent, and Justice H. A. Omondi issued an order giving effect to it, dividing the farm and ordering occupants of the 606-acre portion to leave. The outcome in the High Court was therefore an agreement between the parties to the suit, not a judgment after a contested trial. Even before the consent, The Star reported that surveyors had gone onto the farm under police guard in November 2020 following an earlier court order, and an attempt by police to carry out an eviction in September 2018 had been abandoned after protests.

The Makala family, represented by the administrator David Ole Soit, holds that the residents are unlawful occupants, and has said that some hold fake title deeds. It says it makes no claim to the 303-acre portion. The residents hold that they are innocent buyers and that they cannot be punished for failures of the land administration. They also say that the 2021 consent was signed by parties who do not live on the land.

The plans to evict brought fear and protest. For many families, eviction would mean losing homes, farms and livelihoods, and the 606-acre portion also holds schools and churches. Residents argue that the court orders do not take account of what it would mean to move so many people. Reports of the number affected range from more than 90 families to about 5,000 residents.

The dispute also has a political side. David Kiplagat has been the most visible figure supporting the residents. He has said that they hold genuine titles and have lived on the land since 1973, and he also holds a parcel on the farm himself, which he says he bought in 2014. In 2022 he applied to join the 1993 case and to have the eviction order set aside, alleging that the consent was fraudulent. On 24 May 2022 the High Court dismissed his application, finding that he had produced no sale agreement, had not shown that his parcel lay within the suit land and had not proved fraud or collusion. In December 2023, according to Citizen Digital, estate administrators accused him of frustrating the eviction order; he described the case as baseless.

The residents have a separate suit in the Environment and Land Court, ELC Case 115A of 2020, in which 90 plaintiffs claim ownership. On 26 September 2024 Justice E. O. Obaga dismissed their application for an injunction and for a stay of the High Court decree. He held that a permanent injunction could not be granted before evidence was heard and that his court could not stay a decree of the High Court, but he noted that the competing ownership claims still needed to be examined. In March 2025 the Nation reported that Maasai elders had asked the Inspector-General of Police to help them carry out the order. A search of Kenya Law found no later ruling, and whether the eviction has been carried out is not known.

The dispute is often described in ethnic terms, as a conflict between Maasai and Kalenjin. That description is incomplete. The two groups bought the farm together, the decree divides it between their shares, and the claims before the courts are made by named families and individuals. In the Rift Valley, where land and identity have long overlapped, such disputes can easily be recast as collective grievances.

Beyond the legal questions, the Nyalilbei conflict has had a heavy human cost. Families have lived for years without knowing whether they will keep their homes and farms, and children born on the land are now adults with families of their own. The dispute shows the long consequences of weak land administration, overlapping titles and slow court processes. It also raises a hard question that the courts have not yet fully answered: how to weigh the original purchase against the titles and decades of occupation of the families who now live there.

If you have documents or memories of Nyalilbei Farm, please share them. Anyone named here who believes something is wrong or incomplete is welcome to contact me, and corrections will be made.

Sources

• Makala & 17 others v Kipteng; Kiplagat (Proposed Interested Party), Civil Suit 210 of 1993, [2022] KEHC 11126 (KLR), 24 May 2022
• Korir & 89 others v Makala & 20 others, Environment and Land Case 115A of 2020, [2024] KEELC 6146 (KLR), 26 September 2024
• The Star, Court orders 5,000 evicted from disputed Uasin Gishu farm, 3 December 2020
• NTV Kenya, Families face eviction after ruling on land
• Nation, Families face eviction after ruling on land in Soy, Uasin Gishu
• Nation, Reprieve for MP, 90 families as Eldoret court halts eviction from disputed land
• Nation, A Boer, Sh900m land and unending fights by two communities in Uasin Gishu, March 2025
• Citizen Digital, Uasin Gishu residents accuse MP of defying court order in battle over 600-acre land, 18 December 2023
• William Kiptoo, Nyalilbei Farm (LR No. 8312), Soy: Ownership, Occupation and the Courts, 1965–2025, Journeys of a Peace Worker

William Kiptoo writes about peace, land and memory at Journeys of a Peace Worker.