Kipsigis clans revive fight to reclaim ancestral tea estate land. [File, Standard]
The long-running dispute over land occupied by large tea estates in Kericho and Bomet has entered a new legal phase, with a Kipsigis community organisation demanding the return of land it says was unlawfully taken from its ancestors during the colonial period.
The Kipsigis Community Clans Organization, through GKL Advocates LLP, has issued separate 30-day notices to Browns East Africa Plantations Plc, Lipton Teas and Infusions NV and the Government of Kenya, signalling possible proceedings before the Environment and Land Court in Kericho.
In a demand letter dated August 12, 2026, the organisation claims that land now occupied by tea estates was forcibly alienated from Kipsigis communities by the British colonial administration between 1902 and the 1940s.
The organisation cites colonial laws and orders, including the Crown Lands Ordinances, the Native Lands Trust Ordinance of 1938 and successive Removal of Natives Orders.
The clans say the original leases were granted without the community's free, prior and informed consent and argues that the leases are liable to have expired, or to expire, under the Constitution and land laws.