Billionaire in epic Coast land battle

Mr Mayur Madhvani. Photo/FILE

A Ugandan family has become the first household to test the spirit and letter of the Land Act, after it moved to court to contest government’s decision to take over its Sh1.2 billion prime land at the Coast.

The Madhvani family, which has in the past fought and won epic battles in Ugandan courts to retain its multi-billion shilling business empire, has sued the government for revoking its ownership of 119 pieces of land through a Gazette Notice on July 15, 2011.

The land belonged to Emfil Ltd, a company associated with the Madhvanis — one of the richest families in the region.

Represented by lawyer Kennedy Ochieng, it argued that the Registrar of Lands had no powers to cancel the title deeds.

The case provides Kenyans with a glimpse into the fortune of a family that arrived in the region in 1898 and which boasts assets across the world.

The Madhvani patriarch was a pioneer sugar farmer and miller before diversifying into coffee, cotton and beans farming.

The family was first thrown into the limelight in the early 1970s when Ugandan dictator Idi Amin kicked them out of Kakira sugar plantations near the source of River Nile and nationalised their property worth millions of dollars.

The Madhvani’s returned to East Africa after the fall of the dictator in 1979 to reclaim their wealth.

The Madhvani empire comprises more than 37 companies, ranging from tourist lodges, sugar factories and aviation firms to power plants and flower companies.

It includes the Chobe Safari Lodge, the East African Glass Works Limited in Kampala, Excel Construction Company Ltd, Kabuye Sugar Works in Rwanda, Kajjansi Roses Limited, Kakira Airport, Kakira Power Company and Kakira Sugar Works in Uganda.

In 1985, the family won its most famous legal battle to reclaim its properties that had been nationalised by Amin in 1971.

According to court papers, Emfil bought 143 beach plots in the South Coast in 1982, but was issued with the titles much later.

The Kwale land in question was purchased from Associated Sugar Company Limited which grabbed headlines in the 1980s for failing to pay sugarcane farmers in Ramisi.

But the government says the land was initially reserved for public use and was allocated to the applicant illegally.

Emfil, which has also sued the Commissioner of Lands and the Attorney General for alleged malice and arm-twisting, maintains that its constitutional right to property cannot be taken away by a gazette notice.

The new Constitution gives priority to indigenous land rights while at the same time endorsing the sanctity of title deeds.

Coast Province is awash with squatters who accuse absentee landlords and foreign multi-nationals of grabbing their ancestral lands.

Whichever way the court rules, it would set a precedent that would dictate how one of the most protracted disputes in the country would be resolved.

In 2007, Emfil filed a case at the High Court against some allottees who claimed to own some of the disputed pieces of land.

During the hearing, the Mombasa registrar of titles Renson Ingonga confirmed the validity of the applicant’s claim and right to the suit property.

Justice Joseph Sergon ruled in favour of the company, observing that the property, which had initially been acquired by the government, was still in the name of the Emfil since the letters of allotment issued to the allottees were revoked.

He also noted that there were no records showing that the defendants were the registered proprietors.