•Judges said the constitutional court lacked the jurisdiction to determine the matter.
•The judges held that the alleged violations are intertwined with the dominant issue being the right to renewal of leases over the suit land.
The High Court has struck out a case in which Del Monte Kenya sued the Murang'a county government for declining to renew leases for its pineapple plantations.
Justices Kanyi Kimondo, Wilfrida Okwany and Chacha Mwita said the constitutional court lacked the jurisdiction to determine the matter. They said the matter ought to have been filed and heard before the Environment and Lands Court.
“We are not persuaded by Del Monte’s argument that merely because it pleaded violations of various constitutional rights, the petition should be heard by the High Court,” they ruled.
The judges held that the alleged violations are intertwined with the dominant issue being the right to renewal of leases over the suit land.
“This dispute falls squarely within the purview of the Environment and Land Court (ELC). We also find that although Del Monte claims a violation of various constitutional rights, those claims are intertwined with the dominant issue and that the ELC has jurisdiction to deal with the alleged violations,” said the Judges.
In the case, the pineapple plantation company argued that on October 1, 2012, it made the requisite applications for extension of the terms of various leases to the relevant local authority in the county of Murang’a and Kiambu where the respective parcels of land are situated.
It said despite observing and complying with the statutory procedure, the two county governments have failed to issue the letters of ‘no objection' for extension of the leasehold terms.
Instead, the county government of Murang’a, as a pre-condition for issuing the letter of no objection,‘requested’ Delmonte to demarcate and allocate to them at least 1,500 acres along the Thika-Kenol Highway for “public use”.