The Kenya African National Union (KANU) party suffered a blow on Monday after it lost ownership of the multi-billion Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC) land.
In a ruling, Justice Jacqueline Mogeni of the High Court sitting in Nairobi revoked KANU's title deed which the party argued was issued to itself.
Justice Mogeni ruled that the Ministry of Tourism was the lawful owner of the expansive facility.
"The allocation of the property to KANU without following legal procedure is unlawful and illegal," Justice Mogeni stated.
The High Court questioned how the Independence Party was allocated the parcel of land that was not surveyed and reserved for public use.
Justice Mogeni clarified that KANU did not present evidence in the procedure for how public land was alienated and then allocated to the party. She said the commissioner of lands had no power to alienate property to KANU.
In their court documents, KANU argued that it was allocated the land in May 1969 by the administrator of land and handed a title deed, making them the bona fide owners of the multi-billion property.
The party had filed the petition at the Environment and Land court, trying to get back the land after it was kicked out in February 2003 through an executive order.
"That the petitioner has an indefeasible title to land Reference Number 209/11157 as the registered owner under Section 26 of the Land Registration Act, No. 3 of 2012, and it was unlawful for the 1st respondent to purport to revoke the title without due process of the law," the party said in the court documents.
Despite management by different entities, KANU said KICC had always been their property. The facility was officially opened by Kenya's first president, the late Mzee Kenyatta, in September 1973.
The party complained that despite the government's takeover without compensation; the government claimed to waive its responsibility to pay liabilities, bills and utilities due to the property including a debt of more than Ksh400 million owed to the Kenya Power and Lighting Company Ltd (KPLC).
