Ex-VP Moody Awori drags Ardhi House into Kisumu land row

Former Vice President Moody Awori has dragged Kisumu Lands officers into a court battle in which he is tussling with four people over a prime seven-acre parcel of land in Kanyakwar.

Mr Awori wants the County Lands registrar and the surveyor enjoined as defendants in the suit which has been before the Environment and Lands Court since April 2013

He argues this will assist the court to determine ownership and ground position of the suit land. In an amendment to his plaint on November 28, the former Vice President through Hayanga and Company Advocates, argues that since the parcels claimed to be owned by the defendants may be positioned on the same ground where his land is, participation of the two officials in the proceedings would assist the court to settle the dispute and shed light on the legality “or otherwise of the title deeds held by both parties.”

Permanent injunction

He accuses the duo of fraudulently registering a mutation report used to illegally issue the four with title deeds without conducting due diligence.

Their actions, he argues, denied him the legitimacy to use the parcel of land.

Awori is accusing Felix Mboya, Jack Amayo Buong, John Amayo Okoto and Maragaret Achieng’ Oumah of trespassing on the land he claims to have acquired in 1999 on a 99-year lease and for which he has been paying annual land rates of Sh48,000.

In his supporting affidavit, he attached a copy of a title deed drawn on December 23 1999 on parcel number L.R 24740 (I.R No.8245) Kanyakwar.

The parcel of land is among several others acquired and put on leaseholds by the Government in 1998, he says.

He claims that in October 2010, the four illegally encroached on the land and started developing it, having subdivided it and secured new title deeds between 2008 and 2010.

The former VP says he learnt of the encroachment in 2010 when he sent his son Jeremy Awori to inspect and secure the land only to find the four and other squatters on the land. Private investigators and surveyors established that it was the land he had bought 10 years earlier, he says.

He wants permanent injunction against the trespassers, their eviction and compensation for damages to the property, as well as costs of the suit against the defendants.

The VP argues that construction of homes on the landamounted to irreparable wastage of the same.

He has faulted the defendants’ titles, arguing that they were issued under the now repealed Registered Land Act (Cap 300) “while the area was actually under Registration of Title Act (Cap 281), also now repealed.” The four however argue that they occupy Kisumu/Kanyakwar B/1379, 1394, 1395 and 1390 respectively, and not LR 24740 (I.R No.8245) claimed by the Sports board member. They say in their witness statements and of defense that they bought the parcels of landfor Sh450,000 from various people in 2008, “after conducting necessary enquiries and searches.”

They have spent between Sh14 million and Sh20million in developing the parcels of land on which sit bungalows, according to court documents.

The defendants argue that they legally acquired the land and are therefore entitled to the same protection and privileges sought by Awori.

Justice Kaniaru says from the documents presented in court by each side; it was possible they both have genuine claims of ownership.

“But the relevant office that should be the custodians to guarantee their entitlements seems to have made a muck of such ownership. Things seem to be muddled,” he observes.

He adds: “And when the scenario is like that the court has to be careful not to appear to oppress one side. A possibility exists that what the parties are tussling over could be on the same site.”

The judge granted Awori’s prayer that the four and their agents be stopped from selling or developing the land pending the hearing and determination of the case. He declined prayers to evict them from the land.

In a statement deposited in court on March 20, Nyanza regional surveyor Isaiah Ouma said he was conversant with the dispute over ownership of land that is registered as freehold and leasehold.

Overlap

“The freehold titles arose out of subdivision of parcel Kisumu/Kanyakwar B/1250 and the leasehold title is registered as L.R No. 24740,” reads the statement.

According to records the land, was subdivided in 2008 vide Land Control board Consent number 400/08 of June 4, 2008. “The proprietor of the parcel recorded was one Pius Okello Njage.”

“The records for the parcel L.R No. 24740 belonging to the plaintiff (Mr Awori) are processed and kept at our headquarters in Ruaraka in Nairobi,” it reads on.

Ouma says the issue of overlap of the parcel of land can be resolved by a ground visit. He adds however that ancestral claims to the land were cancelled by the National LandsCommission via Gazette Notice Vol CXIX (119) number 97 of July 17, 2017.

His statement also shows that inhabitants of the Kanyakwar land were evicted to pave way for expansion of Kisumu.