The Environment and Land Court in Thika has declined an application seeking to compel the Kiambu County Government to receive applications for change of user and subdivision relating to a proposed 565-acre mixed-use development in Juja.
The application was filed by parties associated with businessman and politician John Mwaura and Vantage View Ltd.
They sought mandatory orders requiring the county government to receive applications for change of user and subdivision relating to Land Reference Numbers 10089 and 10090/1 at Juja Kiaora Farm.
Lady Justice Jane Onyango held that the orders sought amounted to a mandatory injunction requiring the county government to take positive action before the substantive issues in the petition are heard. She said such relief can only be granted in exceptional and clear cases.
“The reliefs sought by the applicants are not merely preservatory in nature. They compel positive action and, in effect, invite the court to direct the respondents' engagement with the statutory planning process,” the judge ruled.
Justice Onyango found that the developers had failed to demonstrate the special or exceptional circumstances required for the court to issue mandatory interlocutory orders.
She also said the material presented before the court was insufficient to justify compelling the county government to act before the petition is fully determined.
The dispute concerns Finsco Africa's planned Vantage View Estate, a proposed development covering about 565 acres in Juja.
According to court documents, the developers argued that they had complied with all statutory requirements for change of user and subdivision but accused the Kiambu County Government of refusing to receive and process their applications, leaving the project in administrative limbo.
In an affidavit sworn by John Mwaura, the company complained that the county government had declined to communicate any decision on the applications for change of user and subdivision and had offered no adequate explanation for the continued inaction.
The county government opposed the application, maintaining that the developers had failed to comply with mandatory requirements under the Physical and Land Use Planning Act and insisting that the approval process could not lawfully proceed under the circumstances.
In her ruling, however, Justice Onyango directed that the developers must not undertake any further development on the land until they obtain the necessary approvals.
The judge observed that although the Physical and Land Use Planning Act requires county governments to respond to development applications within prescribed timelines, the evidence presented at this stage did not justify the extraordinary orders sought.
