• The court asked why the NLC, which has constitutional powers, is yet to recover the payout.
• Judge Ogola said the application was meant to deprive citizens of their property and therefore cannot be allowed.
Image: JOHN CHESOLI
The ghosts of former National Land Commission officials seem to be haunting them even after leaving the troubled office.
A year after they left office, issues linked to their tenure are still unsettled in the courts.
Recently, Mombasa resident judge Erick Ogola directed a firm owned by a Mombasa businessman to refund Sh1.8 billion it received from the NLC.
Ogola said the firm allowed itself to receive compensation for the land acquired by the NLC to construct the standard gauge railway.
The judge said the commission approved the compensation award, despite having full knowledge that the land belonged to squatters and the firm had illegally acquired the land.
The constitutional review petition was by filed Miritini Free Port, a firm associated with a developer against Theresia Runji, Marieta Gitonga, Naomi Kiio and Sammy Kara against the NLC.
The firm asked the court to review its previou orders directing the NLC to recover the funds it had paid them.
But judge Ogala said Miritini Free Port was using the review application to lay claim to ownership of property belonging to someone else, something that cannot be condoned in a court of equity.
He further said if the application were to be allowed, it would set a precedent for the courts to be used to deprive citizens of their legally acquired properties.
The court further faulted NLC as a commission that violated its own recommendation to issue title deed to the squatters.
“This court is at a loss at the conduct of the National Land Commission. Having unlawfully, and whether by mistake or otherwise, paid the Miritini Free Port compensation money which is rightfully due to the Petitioners, the NLC has not taken any steps to recover the said compensation money unlawfully paid as enshrined in the Section 116 of The Land Act,” Ogola said.
The squatters said they were allocated the land by the government in 1996 after they were moved from Bombululu after the land was acquired for construction of a children’s home.
In 2007, they were shocked when the commissioner of lands cancelled the survey and instead consolidated the two plots and issued the same to Migdad Enterprises.
When the squatters heard of the cancellation of the survey and plans to deny them the land, they sued to stop the process. The court issued a conservatory order suspending allocation of the land.
However, disregarding the court orders, the former commissioner of land directed the registration of the land to Miqdad, which later sold it to Miritini Free Port, that later sold it to to the NLC exchange for compensation.
This transfer took place though Mombasa county and the Attorney General had confirmed the land belonged to the squatters and alongside the NLC, recommended ownership rights be granted to the four petitioners.
However in 2015, a letter annexed NLC/Chairman/VOL/XIII/275 indicated the land had been transferred to Miritini Free Port from Migdad, who only had an allotment letter.
(Edited by V. Graham)