The widow of late businessman Jacob Juma has failed to persuade an appeals court to block her eviction from a controversial property in Nairobi’s Loresho area.
A three-judge panel of the Court of Appeal dismissed Ms Miriam Juma’s application, saying they were not satisfied that her appeal would be in vain if the orders preventing her eviction were not granted.
Ms Juma is locked in a tussle with Ashok Rupshi Shah and Hiten Kumar over the ownership of Sh1.3 billion land in Loresho.
The land is also claimed by a former regional commissioner, Davis Nathan Chilugwe, who has also been charged with fraud for obtaining documents for the disputed land.
Justices Patrick Kiagi, Abida Ali Aroni and Lydia Akode noted that Ms Juma had been in possession of the land for 15 years and was still in possession, a position that had not changed despite Mr Shah’s victory.
“The applicant’s inactive approach is evident in the long delay in filing the application, and when she failed to file a response to an application seeking eviction orders, but this poses a greater threat to her than the ongoing investigations by the Criminal Investigation Directorate,” the judges said.
The court said that based on the results of the investigations, Ms. Juma will have an equal opportunity to present her case before the Director of Criminal Investigations, as the investigations aim to uncover the truth, which will in any case be in the interest of all parties and may help to end this long-standing issue.
In July 2022, Justice Louise Comingwe of the Environment and Lands Court ruled that Mr Juma, who died in May 2016, had fraudulently obtained documents for 18.25 acres of land.
The judge ordered the documents to be cancelled and ordered Ms Juma to pay Sh50 million to Mr Shah and Mr Kumar as compensation for trespassing on their property and depriving the rightful owners of the enjoyment of their property.
Mr. Chelugui later sought to have the decision overturned, arguing that he had been sentenced without being heard, but his request to reopen the case was denied.
In 2009, Mr Shah and Mr Kumar went to court, alleging that Mr Juma had fraudulently taken possession of the land, fenced it off and built security houses to prevent them from accessing it.
The widow said the land was registered in her late husband’s name in an allotment letter dated March 1, 1992 and a grant registered on August 16, 1994.
She said Mr Juma occupied the land and built structures only so that Mr Shah and Mr Kumar could go to court to cancel the documents.
Ms. Juma added that the grant to the claimants to the land was issued on 1 December 1994 and was first registered in the name of Laini Limited on 5 December 1994, and that the two grants had identical title plans.
She said the judge was wrong in failing to find fault with the allotment letter to Liney Company Limited, the instalments of which were paid on 20 November 1994 – after a delay of about 20 months – and in ruling that the land in question was irregularly allotted to Mr Juma without proving fraud.
Ms Juma also pointed out that the court also relied on the testimony of Antipas Nyanga and the hearsay evidence of Zablon Mabia as evidence of forgery and ignored the records of the Lands Department and the Director of Survey which showed that the grant deed scheme held by Mr Juma was valid and the grant held by Mr Shah was invalid.
In opposition, Mr Shah told the court that there was another case filed by Mr Chelugui which ordered the status quo to remain until ownership was determined.
He said the property has since been converted into Nairobi Block and 29 title deeds have been issued after the land was subdivided.