Former Nairobi governor Mike Sonko has secured another legal victory after the Environment and Land Court dismissed a case seeking to revoke his title deed.
In a ruling, the Kwale High Court instead ordered former Member of Parliament Omari Zonga to refund Ksh7.9 million to a private company, which was embroiled in the case.
The case involved the contested ownership of a parcel of land in Kwale County, which Sonko and the private company claimed ownership of. Disputes began when the company sued Sonko, the Attorney General and Zonga, alleging fraud in how the ex-county boss obtained his title deed.
Sonko, who was named as the first defendant in the suit, argued that he purchased the land from Zonga in 2013 and his title deed was lawfully issued on March 26, 2013.
Court documents indicate that Zonga later sold the same piece of land to a private company in April 2014 for Ksh7.75 million with full knowledge that he had transferred the same parcel to Sonko the previous year.
The private company, upon receiving the title deed on May 6, 2014, claimed they did not know about the earlier sale to Sonko, as they asked the court to revoke the former governor's title deed and declare them the rightful owners. Sonko was also accused of working with the Land Registrar to obtain the title fraudulently. The court, however, found no evidence to back the claims.
Since the court found that the private company failed to meet the higher standard of proof required in fraud cases, the claims against Sonko were dismissed, effectively affirming that the former governor remained the rightful owner of the land.
"The 1st defendant cannot be blamed for the earlier sale. In fact, the plaintiff pleads at paragraph 20 of the amended plaint that the 3rd defendant did not disclose to the plaintiff that a transfer had been signed between the 1st defendant and himself with regard to the suit property. This exonerates the 1st defendant. A party is bound by its pleadings," the ruling stated.
Further, the court held that Zonga bore sole responsibility for the double sale and judgment was entered against the former lawmaker, who was ordered to refund the private company in a ruling which was delivered virtually.
Besides the Ksh7,750,000 as the purchase price, Zonga was required to also pay Ksh155,040 for stamp duty, totalling Ksh7,905,040.
This was the second major court victory for Sonko, coming barely a week after the Assets Recovery Agency was ordered to unfreeze nine bank accounts said to hold over Ksh537 million belonging to the former governor.
After analysing the evidence, the lawyer relayed that the court had found no instance of misappropriation of funds and, most importantly, faulted the ARA for having insufficient evidence by failing to provide any of Sonko's transactions before he became the county boss.
