•The County Government is seeking to set aside orders issued in relation to the disputed land.
•It says there was no consent or rates clearance certificates from City Hall.
The Nairobi county government has moved to court seeking to save CITAM Church from being demolished over an ugly land dispute in Buru Buru.
Governor Mike Sonko was on Saturday called by church members to intervene after a group of youths attacked them and threatened to demolish the building.
The county government on Monday moved to court seeking to set aside orders issued in relation to the disputed land.
It also wants to be enjoined in the case alleging that the order issued by magistrate E. Wanjala last month was without any jurisdiction.
The court on Tuesday allowed the application for the enjoinment of the county as an interested party. Wanjala directed the county government to file and serve the application to the parties and appear before the court today for inter-parties hearing.
The county argues that the decision issued by the court was illegal and should be set aside.
“That the purported consent order on April 10 be set aside based on an illegality, and hence, ought to be set aside,” reads the court documents.
In the application filed by lawyer Harrison Kinyanjui, the county has sued Glad Tidings Crusade, Christine Opiko, Fred Agwa and Edward Otieno.
The county government says that there was no consent or rates clearance certificates obtained from City Hall by the said people who were given orders. Kinyanjui argues that the suit before the court constitutes abuse of the court process, saying that the said people obtained the orders that are injurious to the county, and indeed, which were made in violation of the Constitution.
Joan Jane Awuor Ocholla, a registered trustee of the Glad Tidings Crusade, says the consent was secured through material non-disclosure and distortion of facts especially the existence of the previous suit.
“I have further noted that no rates clearance certificate was obtained from us to validate such dealing in the suit property," Ocholla says.
The land at the centre of the dispute has the church, which also houses a school with more than 300 pupils. One side claims it leased the premises for 10 years from the Glad Tidings Crusade Ministry and it was allowed to put temporary structures.
It is alleged that a private developer used the said youths to evict and remove the members of the church from the premises.
Sonko stepped in and stopped the demolition alleging that the man behind the grabbing of the church is a well-known land grabber who is using court orders to take over parcels in Nairobi.