Premium tears: Court cancels Nakuru’s Kiamunyi land titles in Prisons land case

A decision by the Commissioner of Lands to illegally alienate part of the Kenya Prisons land in Kiamunyi, Nakuru County, and transferring it to private use has come to haunt families who now face eviction from their homes.

The Nakuru Environment and Lands Court judge declared their titles illegal.

The court also found the Commissioner at fault for failing his duty to protect unalienated government land when he alienated 70 acres of Nakuru prisons land and transferred it to a private individual Patricia Stewart Peters.

The land in question is registered as Njoro/Ngata Block 16, formerly LR 21988, LR 11788, measuring 70 acres that had been alienated from 628 acres of Prisons land in Kiamunyi.

“The Commissioner of Lands had a duty to protect un-alienated government land occupied by government departments such as the judiciary, prisons, police, public works and schools but instead of protecting the government organisation, he breached the trust bestowed to upon him and allocated the same un-alienated government already occupied by a state organ or department to private persons for private use,” ruled Justice Ombwayo in his judgement dated March 15.

He made the ruling in a case filed by 17 individuals against Kenya Prisons Service seeking to block it from reclaiming the 70 acres that the agency claimed to own.

The petitioners who laid claim to the land counter-claimed with their own registered titles of the plots registered in their names after purchasing the same from the Catholic Diocese.

According to the petitioners, a grant for the parcel of land was issued in 1967 to Patricia Stewart Peters for 951 years following its subdivision by the Commissioner of Lands.

The entire parcel was then transferred to Mr Martin Luther Olweny Owuor who in 1990, transferred it to Boma Investments Limited.

The investment company later sold the land to the Catholic Diocese at a price of Sh54.4 million.

The Catholic Diocese converted the property from grant IR 21998 LR11788 to the Registered Land Act, which was then registered as Njoro/Ngata Block 16 that was eventually subdivided into plots and sold to the current residents.

The residents then developed their homes and businesses on the said parcel before the Kenya Prisons embarked on the process of reclaiming it.

According to the petitioners, on February 22, 2021, Prison warders invaded their plots and marked them with letter X and scribbled the initials KPS for Kenya Prisons Services.

The markings were meant to serve as a warning to the residents to vacate and pull down their houses.

Fearing demolitions, the individuals petitioned the court to stop the process and sought a permanent injunction restraining the Service from trespassing, demolishing or interfering with their peaceful occupation of the land.

However, the KPS filed a rebuttal claiming ownership of the land and accused the individuals of encroachment through an illegal and fraudulent process.

Atai King’oine, the County surveyor who testified on behalf of the Service, said the land measured 628 acres out of which 57 acres was occupied by the Africa Inland Church and a school, 47 acres was being used as dumpsite, adjacent to it was a Jua Kali Association while private developers occupied 40 acres.

Mary Gatakaa, a surveyor employed by KPS, testified that the prison land was gazetted in 1961, measuring 628 acres and has never been degazetted.

In his ruling, Justice Ombwayo noted that the land belonged to the government as it contained prisons buildings and that the Commissioner of Lands had no authority to alienate it for public use.

“The subsequent subdivision and transfer to Mr Martin Luther Olweny, Boma Limited, Catholic Church and finally the plaintiffs were illegal and cannot be sanctioned by the court,” ruled the judge.

According to the judge the residents are victims of the mistakes and misrepresentations by the Commissioner of Lands.

The court thus dismissed the case for lack of merit.

“It was very clear that the parcel of land comprised a gazetted prisons building that was so visible and yet the Commissioner of Lands brazenly allocated the same without considering the public interest and further approved a PDP that reduced the prisons land and set a stage for ratifying the plaintiffs titles and in the process the prisons Services lost part of their land,” ruled Justice Obwayo.

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