Tale of land, retired judge and the Kenya School of Law

The High Court has revoked the transfer of a 0.96-acre piece of land from the Kenya School of Law (KSL) to a private company, following a suit by the anti-graft watchdog that implicated retired judge Leonard Njagi in Rockville Limited’s irregular acquisition of the prime property.

While ordering that the land be given back to KSL, Justice Eboso directed that ownership documents issued to Rockville Limited be revoked.

The prime land has a house that was initially alienated for use by KSL’s principal.

The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) filed a suit against former Lands commissioner Wilson Gachanja, Rockville Limited, Standard Assurance and Wilson Kipkoti seeking to recover the land.

In its pleadings, the EACC stated that retired judge Njagi, while still the principal of KSL, irregularly transferred the property to Rockville Limited. Rockville then sold the land to collapsed underwriter Standard Assurance in 2002 for Sh50 million.

Mr Kipkoti is a Standard Assurance director.

Standard Assurance then went on to take a Sh10 million bank loan using the land as security. Justice Eboso’s decision now means that the collapsed insurer will have to sort out its issue with the bank in a separate forum as the collateral used is out of the picture.

Mr Njagi’s involvement in the transfer has also been the subject of Parliament proceedings in the past.

Held public office

In 2018 the National Assembly’s Public Investments Committee (PIC) gave the Kenya School of Law a six-month deadline to recover the land from Rockville.

During the proceedings, the PIC noted that Mr Njagi’s appointment as a High Court judge after leaving KSL was curious as past adverse parliamentary reports should have barred him from holding public office.

EACC first tried to pursue the land through a court case in 2008. In that suit, ex-Lands commissioner Mr Gachanja claimed that he had signed the transfer documents on orders from former President Daniel Arap Moi.

On Wednesday Justice Eboso agreed with EACC’s argument that the land had already been allocated to KSL and was therefore not available for transfer to a private company.

The judge also held that the usual procedures for alienating land had not been followed while registering title deeds in Rockville’s favour.

“An order is made cancelling and revoking the documents issued to the second and third defendants in respect of land parcel LR number 209/6238; An order is made cancelling and revoking the documents issued to the second and third defendants in respect of land parcel LR 209/6238; Chief Lands Registrar is hereby ordered to cancel the said entries and register the suit property in the name of the PS National Treasury,” Justice Eboso said in his judgment.

Investigations had revealed that the land was initially part of a larger parcel owned by the East African Common Services Authority in 1962, but a 0.96-acre portion was given to the KSL.

Despite the portion being owned by the KSL, a survey was done on it in 1997 before fresh title deeds were issued to Rockville.

The probe initially revealed that Mr Njagi is a director of Rockville Limited, but the retired judge denied the allegation.

The Nation, however, conducted a search on Rockville Limited on the online Companies Registry portal but found that the two firms with the name are both unverified.

This means that they have not complied with requirements of providing ownership records to the Companies Registry.

A warning

EACC chief executive Twalib Mbarak said that the judgment should act as a warning to individuals who irregularly acquired public land.

“The judgment is a clear signal to land grabbers that irregularly acquired public property will be recovered. EACC invites others in a similar position to voluntarily surrender land in their possession that was set aside for public utility,” Mr Mbarak said.