Two church elders have finally been cleared of criminal liability in a long-running land dispute after the Court of Appeal in Nairobi quashed their convictions for forcible detainer.
In a judgment delivered on July 25, 2025, a three-judge bench comprising Justices Patrick Kiage, Jamila Mohammed, and Weldon Korir allowed the appeal of Charles Thiru Njoka and Florence Mwamunga, who had been convicted by the lower courts for unlawfully occupying a plot of land in Kayole, Nairobi, belonging to Micro Forms Limited.
The disputed plot, identified as No. A3-178, was at the heart of a heated battle dating back to October 2010, when the complainant, James Onesmus Gitonga Weru a director at Micro Forms attempted to commence construction works on the property but was blocked by members of the P.C.E.A Church, Kayole Parish. Gitonga later reported that his building materials worth Ksh 100,000 were stolen during the commotion.
The trial court had initially convicted the two elders of forcible detainer under section 91 of the Penal Code and a lesser offence of neglect to prevent a felony, sentencing them to one year on probation. The High Court upheld the conviction in 2018.
However, the Court of Appeal found that the offence of forcible detainer had not been proved beyond reasonable doubt, noting that the land was clearly under dispute, and the church had shown procedural steps and documentation in its application for allocation from the then City Council of Nairobi.
“Ownership of the suit land stood disputed… it is evident that the appellants were in occupation of the land… we are accordingly not convinced by the assertion that the appellants had no colour of right to the suit land.”
The court also noted that the document examiner’s unchallenged testimony cast doubt on the authenticity of the allotment documents relied upon by the complainant.
In a crucial finding, the court held that the criminal courts were not the proper forum to resolve such ownership disputes and observed:
The proper forum for resolution of this dispute was in the civil court.”
With those findings, the Court of Appeal quashed the convictions and set aside the sentences, noting that although the elders had already served their probation, the ruling now cleared their names.
The judgment brings to an end a 15-year legal saga over the small plot of land where the P.C.E.A. church had constructed a nursery school.
