File image of a grave site in Shakahola Forest.
The Director General of the Business Registration Service Keneth Gathuma has announced that part of the Shakahola land is up for sale.
Gathuma on Monday June 19, informed the Senate Ad Hoc Committee looking into the Shakahola killings that the Shakahola Forest was private land that was being liquidated in an effort to pay back a Ksh75 million loan.
This is after he was asked by the committee whether the Shakahola forest land belongs to the government.
“It does not belong to the government. It actually belongs to the creditors. I am supposed to liquidate and pay the creditors; whatever is left is for the contributors,” he stated.
The director general noted that no government notice or communication claiming the disputed territory had reached his office.
He also dismissed rumors that the Good News International Church pastor Paul Mackenzie was listed as one of the property’s owners.
According to Gathuma, the property was a portion of a 10,000-acre plot of land held by six individuals. They were however ordered by the High Court in 2016 to dissolve, and the official receiver be constituted as its liquidator.
“The company was in the business of farming, animal produce and livestock breeding. The ranch is owned by six Kenyans who last filed their annual returns on April 18, 2015,” Gathuma explained.
“By virtue of the liquidation order, all 100,000 acres parcels of land owned by the company in Malindi and Kilifi county were constituted to the receiver.”
Gathuma’s remarks come days after Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki announced that the governemnt would convert part of the Shakahola forest into a national memorial site to honour the victims.
