• Court dismissed applications by Kenyan and two Italians for lack of merit.
• German's widow applied to take over the property; ruling made in her favour.
A Malindi court has ordered police to evict occupants of a disputed multimillion property and hand it over to the rightful owner.
Justice J.O Olola of the Environment and Lands Court ordered Watamu OCS to evict Giovani Ozzi and Damaris Nthenya and their associates who are occupying Mawimbi lodges and two other properties in Watamu.
The properties were owned by Daniel Bernhard Reinhard and his Kenyan wife Joyce Jepleting Reinhard.
In 2012, Jepleting filed a suit seeking to take over the property and the court ruled in her favour last July.
The judge dismissed three applications filed by Nthenya, Italians Ozzi and Andus Keller–a tenant in one of the properties–saying they lacked merit.
“The application by one Alfred Andus Keller seeking to be enjoined as a defendant in this proceedings and dated September 12, 2018, is dismissed. The second defendant’s application dated October 11, 2018, is dismissed. The first defendant’s application dated September 5, 2018, is dismissed,” the judge ruled.
Nthenya was seeking stay orders both at the ELC court and Court of Appeal.
Keller had told the court she could not leave the premises as she had no other place to call home and that the other premises had been rented.
Olola ordered the plaintiff to have the costs of all the applications.
He said the plaintiff deserves to be assisted by the National Police Service to evict the defendant.
“I will not, therefore, agree with the Attorney General that this is a matter that police presence is not required," she said.
Immediately after the ruling, Jepleting could not hide her joy for getting justice. She, however, appealed to police to protect her as she had been threatened before.
“I had a lot of stress but I thank God a lot because today I have succeeded in the case and would urge the police to help me take over my premises,’’ she said.
Since the case started in 2012, Jepleting said she has appointed 15 different lawyers and each quit in the middle of the case.
In August last year, Jepleting accused the police of failing to execute court orders and asked the Inspector General to intervene.
This is after attempts to take over her property failed to get support from the police who were supposed to execute the court orders that gave the occupants 30 days to leave or be forcefully evicted.
Edited by R.Wamochie