Court stops former Fafi MP Elias Bare from evicting kin, selling father's land

Former Fafi MP Elias Bare Shill. [File, Standard]

A court has barred a former legislator from disposing of his father’s estate or demanding rent from his siblings.

The court also stopped an ongoing case at the Rent Restriction Tribunal Court in Garissa until the case before him was heard and determined.

“For the avoidance of any doubt and for clarity there will be no disposal of the suit property by way of sale or transfer and there will be no further charging of the property without an order of the court in that regard,” ruled Justice John Mutungi of the Garissa court.

Aden Bare sued the former Fafi MP Elias Bare Shill accusing him of illegally transferring their father’s plot in Garissa town to his name.

Their father died on September 8, 1973. The property comprises five rental houses and five rental shops where Aden says that he stays with their mother and collects rent.

Aden claimed that Elias attempted to transfer the property to himself when their father was ill but the then Garissa District Commissioner stopped the bid in an August 16, 1973 letter.

He alleged that the former MP again attempted to deprive them of inheritance when they learned that the property was among 193 that had been recommended for titles.

They instead requested to have the property registered in the name of their father Bare Shill Abdi and Sons, which was granted by the County Council.

According to Aden, the family came to learn that their brother had acquired a title deed of the property during the succession proceedings at the Kadhi’s court in 2022.

The Kadhi’s court refused to continue with the succession regarding the property until its ownership was determined.

After the development, Elias took his brother Aden to the rent tribunal seeking to have him evicted from the property for failing to pay him rent.

In his defence, Aden claimed that he had never paid any rent for the time he had been living on the property.

He claimed that Elias threatened to demolish the property and this would leave him homeless and cause losses to his father’s estate.

In his defense, the former legislator said that his father had six wives and only his mother and Aden’s mother were legally married to him.

He claimed that before his father died, he distributed the properties among his three wives and nine children.

According to Elias, the property in question was transferred to him to hold in trust for his mother and siblings.

He said that it was his father who initiated the transfer of the land to him but was rejected by the then Garissa District Commissioner.