• The land was initially part of a 3,300-acre piece owned by a white settler called Jacob Hendrik Engelbrecht, and Kipngeny is said to have teamed up with Lang’at, Thomas Yator, Cherop Arap Maritim and William Letting to purchase the property in 1965.
• The court had heard that the ex-President Moi had, in September 21st 1983, forcibly took over the 53-acre piece of land, which by court documents then, was owned by the ex-chief, Kipngeny.
The Sh1 billion payout ordered by a court against ex-President Daniel Moi to a family in Eldoret for allegedly grabbing their land may now have to be put on hold.
A businessman has moved to the Court of Appeal claiming some 21.454 acres of the plot doesn’t belong to Susan Cheburet Chelugui and her son David Chelugui.
The duo is the administrator of the estate of the late Noah Kipngeny Chelugui. Susan is Kipngeny’s widow.
Through his lawyer Francis Kadima, Nathaniel Langat wants the court to instead award him the compensation claiming the land is his and has produced land survey records to prove his allegations.
In a notice of appeal that was filed in court on May 23 and certified urgent on July 30 by Justice Otieno Odek sitting in Kisumu, the appellant will now have the case heard on a priority basis.
Kadima also wants his client enjoined in the suit as an interested party.
“The judge was misled on facts by Cheburet and failure by the other respondents to provide the court with sufficient material including disclosure of a suit challenging ownership filed by my client, and maps so that it could help him reach a just decision,” Kadima said.
Kadima argues that the court did not investigate further to establish the events of parcellations, subdivisions and re-subdivisions creating new parcels and transfer to third parties.
“The judge concluded that the whole parcel of land belonged to Kipngeny, yet that was not the case. It belonged to all the partners,” Kadima said.
The land was initially part of a 3,300-acre piece owned by a white settler called Jacob Hendrik Engelbrecht.
Kipngeny is said to have teamed up with Lang’at, Thomas Yator, Cherop Arap Maritim and William Letting to purchase the property in 1965.
The court had heard that the ex-President had on September 21 1983, forcibly taken over the 53-acre piece of land, which by court documents then, was owned by the ex-chief, Kipngeny.
The scheme, the court heard, involved ordering lands officials to make the necessary transfers to register the property, and then, 24 years later, he sold it to a firm owned by the Jaswant Rai family-Rai Plywood K Limited.
The firm has been growing wheat on the land since occupying it in 2007, which was approximately two years after Kipngeny died.
In 2014, Kipngeny’s widow, 85, and the son successfully sued Moi, Rai Plywood, the District Land Registrar, Uasin Gishu District, the Registrar of Titles and the National Land Commission.
This is the case that Lagat wants to be enjoined in, and is asking the court to grant an order of stay of execution of the judgment and decree of the Environmental and Land court at Eldoret delivered on May 8 2019 by Justice Antony Obwayo.
Lagat wants the court to restrain the respondents from altering the register in favour of Rai Plywood or recognising the title numbers.
Kadima informed the court that the ex-President and the company should also be restrained from paying or transferring money awarded as damages to Cheburet.
Moi’s lawyer, Juma Kiplenge, had on May 15 filed a notice of appeal and is seeking a stay of execution of the orders by the Eldoret court over the Sh1.06 billion award.
The applicants’ claim is based on documents emanating from official records held by the lands office and Survey of Kenya, which allegedly confirm his ownership.