Jacob Juma’s widow loses bid to stop eviction from Loresho land

The widow of Jacob Juma, the Nairobi-based businessman who was murdered in a drive-by shooting along Ngong Road in May 2016, has failed to convince the Court of Appeal to block her eviction from a contested property in Nairobi's Loresho area.

A bench of three judges of the appellate court dismissed the application by Ms Miriam Juma, saying, they were not persuaded that her appeal would be rendered useless if the orders blocking her eviction were not granted.

Ms Juma has been embroiled in a legal battle over the ownership of the Sh1.3 billion piece of land in Loresho with Mr Ashok Rupshi Shah and Hiten Kumar.

The land is equally claimed by a former provincial commissioner Davis Nathan Chelogoi, who has also been charged with fraud-related counts over the procurement of ownership documents for the suit property.

Justices Patrick Kiage, Abida Ali-Aroni, and Lydia Achode noted that Ms Juma has been in possession of the property for the past 15 years and counting, a position that has not changed despite Mr Shah winning the case in court.

Long delay

“The lacklustre approach of the applicant is seen in the long delay in bringing the application and when she failed to file a response to an application seeking eviction orders, yet that is more of a threat to her than the investigations ongoing by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI),” the judges said.

The court said that, depending on how the investigations pan out, Ms Juma will have an equal chance to present her case before the DCI since the investigations are seeking to uncover the truth, which will, in any event, be for the best of all parties and may help to bring the long outstanding matter to rest.

Justice Loise Komingoi of the Environment and Land Court ruled in July 2022 that Mr Juma obtained documents for the 18.25-acre parcel fraudulently.

She ordered the cancellation of the documents and directed Ms Juma to pay Mr Shah and Kumar Sh50 million in damages for trespass and for denying the real owners their right to enjoy their property. Mr Chelogoi later sought to quash the decision, arguing that he was condemned unheard but his application to reopen the case was rejected.

Mr Shah and Kumar moved to court in 2009, arguing that Mr Juma fraudulently took over the land, fenced it, and built security houses to deny them access.

The widow said the property was registered in the name of her late husband in an allotment letter dated March 1, 1992, and a grant registered on August 16, 1994. She said Mr Juma was in occupation of the property and had constructed structures only for Mr Shah and Kumar to move to court seeking the cancellation of the documents.

Ms Juma further stated that the grant given to the persons claiming the land was issued on December 1, 1994, and first registered in the name of Liney Company Limited on December 5, 1994, and the two grants bear identical deed plans.

Fraud

She said the judge was wrong in finding no fault in the letter of allotment to Liney Company Limited whose stand premium was paid for on November 20, 1994- about 20 months late and for holding that the suit property was irregularly allotted to Mr Juma without proof of fraud.

Ms Juma further pointed out that the court also relied on the testimony of Antipas Nyanjwa and hearsay evidence from Zablon Mabeya as proof of forgery and disregarded the records kept by the Department of Lands and the Director of Survey evidencing that the deed plan for the grant held by Mr Juma was valid and that the grant held by Mr Shah was invalid.

In response, Mr Shah told the court that there was another case filed by Mr Chelogoi that ordered for the status quo to be maintained, pending the determination of the ownership.

The property has since been broken up into 29 plots and the respective title deeds issued following its sub-division.

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