The Environment and Land Court on Monday issued a 70-day notice to unregistered occupants of a parcel of land belonging to late tycoon Gerishon Kirima to vacate or face eviction on January 1.
The verdict was in consolidated suits revolving around claims of adverse possession by at least 300 occupants, with the oldest case dating back to 2011.
Kisumu Law Courts, Justice Samson Okong’o, ruled that the 300 had no valid claim on the parcels they occupied in Njiru within Nairobi’s Embakasi region, dismissing assertions of adverse possession as unmerited.
“The plaintiffs in this suit have no valid claim over L.R No. 6825/2,” he ordered while dismissing a suit filed in 2014.
“To save them from forceful eviction from the property, I hereby give those of them who are in actual occupation of L.R No. 6825/2 upto and including 31st December 2023 to vacate and handover possession of the property to the estate of G.K. Kirima in default of which the estate shall be at liberty to evict them from the property,” he directed.
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Further, he concluded that the settlers were trespassers, having failed to demonstrate that they settled on the parcels after securing consent.
“The plaintiff has proved that the defendants did not obtain his consent before entering into his said parcels of land and commencing construction thereon,” Okong’o ruled.
“The defendants were in the circumstances trespassers on the said parcels of land,” he observed.
Judge Okong'o added that if the Kirima estate's lawyers had submitted a request for such reliefs, he would not have hesitated to provide damages for the illegal occupation.
For identical reasons, the court rejected the allegations made by Self Help Groups such as Kamatuto and Naridai Muoroto.
Judge Okong'o, however, granted permission for ten defendants to pray and gave the estate administrators of Kirima 90 days to complete the sale of the impacted areas.
