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Members of Makuyu golf course in Murang’a have a reason to smile after a Thika court ruled they be given back a piece of land which was allegedly grabbed from them by Kakuzi Limited.

The court directed the company to surrender 70 acres to the club trustees.

Joel Wanyoike, one of the trustees, told People Sport that the golf course was started by white settlers in 1934  and they adjusted their land to create room for it.  He said for many years, Kakuzi, which came in in 1967, did not have any issue with the course until in the 90s when locals started patronising it.

“When the whites were running the club, the company had no issues but after the locals took over, it marked the beginning of a long tussle,” said Wanyoike.

The trustee said the management of Kakuzi started demanding that members of the club pay an annual fee to be allowed in and that is when they realised that the company wanted to takeover the land, prompting them to seek legal redress.

“We had tried to obtain a tittle deed for the parcel of the land but the company refused to surrender it to us. In 2002, we moved to court and the case has dragged on for 17 years but finally a ruling has been made in our favour,” added Wanyoike.

With the ruling, the trustees now want to move with speed to develop the course to the required standards.

Club chairman Macharia Kimani said they intend to develop the nine-hole course to international standards and make it a training centre for locals who have interest in golf. 

“This will be the first public golf course in the county and we would like the locals to be the first beneficiaries of its revival,” said Kimani.

He added: “We were more than 200 members but many left as we waited for the conclusion of the court case.”