The Court of Appeal has upheld a landmark ruling declaring that the land occupied by Drive-In Primary School and Ruaraka High School is public land, dismissing an appeal by two private companies that sought to secure billions of shillings in compensation.
In a judgment delivered in Nairobi on Friday, Justices W. Karanja, F. Tuiyott and W. Korir upheld the decision of the Environment and Land Court (ELC), finding that the Government had no legal obligation to compensate Afrison Export Import Limited and Huelands Limited because the land had already been surrendered for public use.
The judges found that the compulsory acquisition process initiated by the National Land Commission (NLC) was legally untenable, since the State cannot compulsorily acquire land that already belongs to it.
“Consequently, the payment of KSh1.5 billion to the appellants was illegal, null and void. It was money paid under a mistake both in law and fact,” the court ruled.
The appeal sought to have the companies’ title to L.R. No. 7879/4 declared indefeasible, overturn the finding that the land occupied by the two schools had been surrendered to the Government, and compel the NLC to pay the outstanding KSh1.769 billion they claimed was still owed.
However, the appellate court rejected every ground of appeal, leaving the ELC judgment intact.
The dispute dates back to 2015, when Francis Mburu, a director of the two companies, filed a claim before the NLC seeking compensation for about 13.5 acres occupied by Drive-In Primary School and Ruaraka High School.
Although the companies maintained they lawfully acquired the property through an indenture registered in 1981, investigations by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) and Parliament concluded that the portion occupied by the schools had previously been surrendered to the Government, making it public land that could not lawfully attract compensation from taxpayers’ money.
The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) was among the respondents in the appeal, alongside the NLC, Nairobi City County, the Chief Land Registrar, the Director of Surveys, the Cabinet Secretaries for Lands and Education, the Attorney General, and Patrick Kanyuira.
