[Source: Daily Nation, by Ibrahim Oruko]
The National Land Commission (NLC) did not have the jurisdiction to preside over the complaint on the restitution of the land on which the controversial Weston Hotel stands, court documents state.
In the latest filings on the long-running dispute, the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA), which claims ownership of the land along Lang’ata Road in Nairobi, further claims NLC lacked jurisdiction to render a determination over its claim for restitution.
The hotel has been the subject of a protracted legal and political battle after it emerged that the land was allegedly acquired irregularly.
The agency says under Section 14 of the NLC Act, the commission’s mandate to review grants and dispositions of public land expired five years from commencement date of the Act, which was May 12, 2012.
Through lawyers James Orengo and Otiende Amollo, KCAA argues that NLC’s mandate to review grants and dispositions of public land expired in May 2017 — even as the commissioners’ terms ended in February this year.
The agency last week filed an application in the high court challenging the deal brokered between NLC and the owners of Weston Hotel. The decision required the facility to compensate KCAA for occupying its land instead of having the hotel demolished.
In the decision delivered on January 25, 2019, NLC recognised and emphasised that KCAA’s entitlement to the piece of land remained unchallenged and noted that Weston Hotel and initial owners; Priority Ltd and Monene Investments Ltd, irregularly procured the registration of the land.
The NLC ordered the hotel to compensate KCAA. But in the court papers filed by Mr Orengo and Mr Amollo, KCAA insists it owns the land and any entity with a different title procured registration through illegality, fraud, and corruption.
It argues that the NLC decision was irregularly signed “for the chairman”— the embattled Prof Muhammad Swazuri, who is facing multiple corruption charges — by the Vice Chair Abigael Mbagaya, despite there being no vacancy in the office of the chairperson.
KCAA Chief Executive Officer Gilbert Kibe describes the move as null and void in the court papers.
KCAA wants the court to issue the order quashing the NLC decision dated January 25, 2019 together with all orders, actions and decisions made in respect of the piece of land known as L.R. 209/14372 and the developments thereon, for having been made without jurisdiction, and for being illegal, irrational and procedurally irregular.
[Full article: Daily Nation, by Ibrahim Oruko]
