EACC has won an appeal to seize residential properties from over 100 residents in Woodley Estate, Nairobi.
The Court of Appeal upheld a decision by the Environment and Land Court that the residents obtained the land illegally from the Nairobi City County Government.
“The Court of Appeal (Tuiyott, Lesiit & Ngenye-Macharia JJA) sitting in Nairobi has, today, declared that the process used by various private individuals to acquire over 100 residential houses in Woodley/Joseph Kang’ethe Estate, Nairobi, was fraudulent, illegal, null and void. The Estate, comprising prime residential houses standing on about 1 acre each, has an estimated market value of Kes1 billion.
- DPP files final submission in former Governor Waititu’s graft case
- Another suspect in Wells Fargo HR manager’s case arrested
The Court of Appeal made the landmark decision while upholding the Judgement of the Environment and Land Court (Okong’o J) in the lead file (ELC Case No. 2054 of 2007) in multiple recovery suits filed by EACC against private developers who grabbed residential properties at Woodley Estate belonging to Nairobi City County Government.
The appeal case (arising from the lead file before the Environment and Land Court) was filed by one Paul Moses Ng’ethe. 52 other recovery suits involving multiple properties have been pending before the lower court, awaiting today’s decision of the Court of Appeal, which has now found that the process used to acquire the properties was flawed and legally untenable.
The recovery suits were first filed in the High Court on 6th October 2006 by the defunct Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission (KACC), predecessor of the current EACC, and subsequently transferred to the Environment and Land Court.
In its Judgement in the lead file, the Environment and Land Court ruled in favour of EACC and issued orders declaring the title held by Paul Moses Ng’ethe invalid, null, and void for all intents and purposes for having been acquired fraudulently and illegally.” said EACC
The court further directed the Ministry of Lands to remove from the registry all legal entries issuing a permanent injunction restraining the defendant from dealing with the grabbed land.
“Justice Okong’o further issued orders directing the Registrar of Lands to cancel and expunge from the Nairobi Land Registry all the illegal entries relating to the property and a permanent injunction restraining the appellant, whether by himself, his servants or agents, from dealing with the grabbed property otherwise than by way of surrender to the Government.
Dissatisfied with the Court’s decision, Paul Moses Ng’ethe filed an appeal before the Court of Appeal, which the Appellate Court has today dismissed for lack of merit and confirmed the entire judgement of the Environment and Land Court.
Appellate Judges Francis Tuiyott, Jessie Lesiit and Grace Ngenye-Macharia have also ordered the appellant to pay the costs of the appeal to EACC. Consequently, EACC will proceed to execute the ELC Judgement, including requiring the appellant, his agents, tenants and/or any other persons currently occupying the recovered property to deliver vacant possession for handover to the Government.” said EACC
