Trio wins six-year battle for grabbed land
The front view of a seven-storey building built on a disputed parcel of land in Ngara. Businessman Harcharan Singh, 86, and his two brothers have won a court battle over the property.
What you need to know:
- To evict the Singhs from the property that is near Equity Bank in Ngara, the courts were told, Rospatech Ltd hired a gang, rogue police officers and bulldozers.
Rospatech produced a title deed to claim ownership of the land. Courts have now found those ownership documents to be forgeries.
Three brothers lost prime land in Nairobi’s Ngara estate to a developer who built an apartment block, but after a protracted court battle, the siblings have been handed the entire property.
In 2014, businessman Harcharan Singh and his two brothers lost a commercial plot in Ngara estate to Rospatech Ltd, a private developer who forcibly took possession of the property and later sold it to another developer who put up a mixed use building.
The Court of Appeals has declined to issue a stay on the judgement of the Environment and Land Court, in which Mr Singh and his brothers - Harbhajan Singh and Jaswanan Singh - were declared the owners of the land the new building constructed on it after a six-year legal battle.
The court’s intervention brought bitter-sweet returns for the Singh brothers because an old building that was on the property was torn down and in its place the developer put up Tarabana Plaza, which has at least 30 paying tenants. The court also awarded the siblings Sh25 million in damages.
To evict the Singhs from the property that is near Equity Bank in Ngara, the courts were told, Rospatech Ltd hired a gang, rogue police officers and bulldozers.
Mr Harcharan, an elderly man, helplessly watched the structures on the land being pulled down. The Singhs have owned the land since 1968 and had been using it as the headquarters of a haulage business.
Ownership documents
At the time, Rospatech produced a title deed to claim ownership of the land. Courts have now found those ownership documents to be forgeries.
Court records indicate that Rospatech Ltd grabbed the land and sold it to Tarabana Ltd for Sh24 million. Tarabana put up the building as the court case filed by Mr Singh was still going on. The Court of Appeal heard that Tarabana used the property to secure a Sh60 million loan.
Coincidentally, crucial files that would have proven the brothers’ ownership of the property went missing at the Ministry of Lands.
In court, Tarabana, Rospatech, the Lands ministry and City Hall officials denied colluding to defraud Mr Singh of his property.
The companies moved on with their plans to occupy the land, despite protests from the Singhs.
Now, both the Land Court and the Court of Appeal have sided with the original owners in saying that the way they lost property under the guise of an expired lease was not procedural.
Environment and Lands Court Judge Kossy Bor pronounced herself on the matter in July 2019 and a three-judge bench of the Court of Appeal declined to grant a stay on her verdict in March this year.
Tenants in the property were given up to December 1 by Pyramid Auctioneers to vacate the premises or recognise Mr Harcharan as their landlord.
The notice read in part: “You are ordered to vacate the premises … by December 1, 2020, without fail. If not, you should renew your tenancy with Mr Harcharan Singh as your landlord through his agents, namely Pyramid Auctioneers.”
Notice to tenants
“Failure to comply, you will be evicted without my further reference,” added the notice to tenants.
Mr Harcharan’s lawyer Kimandu Gichohi told the Nation yesterday that the tenants are yet to abide by the order, adding that coordination was ongoing with security agencies and that action would be taken “any time”.
The company behind the grab, Rospatech Ltd, has Mr Martin Njuguna Ngugi as one of its directors, while Mr Charles Kiri Thube is one of the owners of Tarabana.
The Lands court heard that the Singh bothers brought the property in 1968. By then it had a lease that was to expire in 2001.
“(The brothers) had a legitimate expectation that their lease would be extended,” Justice Bor stated in her judgment.
The circumstances under which Mr Njuguna ended up transferring the property to his company, Rospatech, and had the initial owners evicted are the subject of a criminal case.
The judge further determined that the three brothers ought not to have lost their lease the way they did.
Editor's Note: This article has been edited to reflect the fact that the Court of Appeal is yet to make a substantive judgement on this matter.
