Displaced villagers seek judicial redress
OVER 200 villagers from Chitukuko and Julius villages in Lusaka West have petitioned the Lusaka High Court to interpret Article 16 chapter 1 of the Constitution in a matter in which they have allegedly been evicted from a land they had been in occupation for over 47 years.
According to a petition filed in the High Court, the petitioners dragged Kwatu Farms Limited which is the title holder, John William Kelly Clayton the managing director at Kwatu Farms and the Attorney General who was being sued on behalf of the Commissioner of Lands.
The petitioners claimed that the proceedings were initiated as a matter of public interest for redress of their grievances regarding the protection of their constitutional and fundamental rights of protection from deprivation of property.
They also claimed that they had been occupants of Julius and Chitukuko village a remainder of Farm No. 1957 from 1970 to date and that Kwatu farms obtained title to the remainder of farm 1957 in 1988 without following the laid down procedures in acquiring interest to land and had been extending its property.
The petitioners alleged Kwatu farms did not have a contract of sale, no consent to assign and no tax clearance with respect to the acquisition of farm 1957. And and that as indigenous occupants of the said land, Kwatu farms and its director did not consult them before obtaining title to the property despite knowing the interest they had in the property.
“The failure to consult us was deliberate for the reason that Kwatu Farms knew the interest we had in the same property and despite the questionable manner in which Kwatu has obtained the property, they have continued to evict us,” they claimed.
The petitioners stated that they strongly believed that their eviction from the property in question premised on the title was unconstitutional and should be prohibited as a matter of public interest and serving justice pursuant to Article 16 of the Constitution, Chapter 1 of the laws of Zambia.
Subsequently, the petitioners asked the court to determine and declare that the purported eviction did not fall within the provisions of Article 16 of the Constitution, Chapter 1 of the laws of Zambia and as such null and void to the extent of the unconstitutionality as the same was being used as a tool to infringe on their rights.