[Source: Daily Nation, by Sam Kiplagat]
A magistrate’s court has set aside orders allowing businessman Patrick Macharia Nderitu to take over a plot in Nairobi’s Buruburu area, whose ownership a church has claimed.
Glad Tidings Crusade Ministry and other parties allege that they own the property earlier said to be worth Sh100 million.
The order issued on April 10 was set aside on Friday following an application by Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko, through lawyer Harrison Kinyanjui.
Mr Sonko filed the application at the same court last Tuesday, accusing Mr Nderitu’s Landmark International Properties Limited of demolishing properties belonging to Glad Tidings and the other parties.
Mr Kinyanjui also noted that the court lacked jurisdiction especially since another case had been filed at the Environment and Land Court.
Mr Nderitu claimed Glad Tidings and its trustees Christine Apiko, Esther Mueni, Fred Agwa and Edward Otieno sold the property to him.
In her ruling on Friday, Senior Resident Magistrate E. Wanjala noted that although the parties consented, the consent departed from the pleadings they filed in court.
Ms Wanjala further explained that the magistrate who heard the case lacked jurisdiction.
She added that parties failed to disclose that the property was worth Sh19 million and that another matter touching on the same land was pending before the High Court.
In his submissions, Mr Kinyanjui told the court that Mr Nderitu’s case should not have been filed in the first place.
He further noted that it was wrong for a magistrate’s court to adjudicate a matter beyond its jurisdiction as it involved property worth Sh100 million.
[Full article: Daily Nation, by Sam Kiplagat]
