Gavel IllustrationA Kisumu man who discovered that the land he had lived on since childhood was registered in another person’s name has won a case to reclaim it after the Environment and Land Court ruled in his favour.
Court documents show that one, Washingtone Ondu Aduma, was born in 1975 on a parcel of land in Korando, Kisumu County, where his parents and stepmother had lived before him.
He later established his homestead there and cultivated part of the land, which measured 0.05 hectares.
In 2023, while seeking to transfer the land to his children for ease of succession, he went to the Kisumu land registry and discovered that the parcel was not in his name but registered to one Herbert Mukoya.
"The Applicant (Aduma) averred that on further investigation at the land registry, he learned that the suit property may have been registered in the name of the Respondent (Mukoya) in 1993 following the land adjudication in the area, either by mistake, fraud, or unknown reasons," stated the judgement.
During court proceedings, Aduma insisted that his family had occupied the land since the 1980s.
The judgment states that he reported the matter to the area chief, who confirmed that his family had long lived there, before filing a suit in October 2023 seeking ownership through adverse possession.
Aduma told the court he had occupied the land openly, continuously, and without interruption since 1987. He said he had fenced it, cultivated it, and put up structures without interference from the registered owner.
He further claimed that he had never met Mukoya and did not know how he became the registered owner.
His witness, Paul Obanda Omwa, confirmed the family’s occupation and testified that Mukoya had left the area years ago and had not been seen for long.
The documents further note that despite being served, Mukoya failed to enter an appearance or file a response, leaving Aduma’s case uncontested.
In a judgment delivered virtually, Justice Samson Okong'o held that Aduma had proved his case.
The judge noted that under Kenyan law, a person who occupies land openly, peacefully, and without interruption for more than 12 years can acquire ownership rights through adverse possession.
He found that the applicant had demonstrated uninterrupted occupation since 1987 and that the registered owner had taken no steps to reclaim the land.
"I hereby enter an order for the Land Registrar, Kisumu County, to register the applicant, Washingtone Ondu Aduma, as the proprietor of the title in place of the respondent, Herbert Mukoya Mukoya," he ruled, adding that he had met the legal threshold.
Justice Okong’o further ordered the registrar to place an inhibition on the title for three years after registration, barring any further dealings with the land during that period.
Each party was directed to bear their own costs.
The ruling closed a dispute that began with a chance discovery at the land registry and ended with the court affirming that decades of uninterrupted occupation can outweigh a title deed under Kenyan law.
