Jubilee MP, David Gikaria, has lost a prime piece of land to a fuel distribution company after he was accused of acquiring the title deed illegally. The Environment and Lands Court in Nakuru ruled that the land belonged to the firm.
The court also ordered the cancellation of the title held by the Nakuru East MP. The firm claimed that the MP fraudulently acquired the land in Nakuru in March 2014.
It argued that it has owned the land from March 1996 as indicated in an original title deed, while the MP's title was dated August 1997.
The firm further proved that it acquired the land legally and also defended the process by which it gained the title deed.
The oil firm explained that it purchased the land from another private entity in 2009, which was given the original title deed in 1996. The two transferred the title ownership a year later.
"Gikaria had the evidential burden to rebut the assertion that his title was unlawfully and fraudulently acquired. Instead, he has not adduced any evidence to show how he acquired the title to the suit property on September 17, 2003, when the private entity which sold it to the fuel firm was already the registered owner from as far back as March 8, 2000," Justice Dalmas Ohungo ruled.
He further restricted the MP from developing or interfering with the fuel company’s possession and occupation of the land. The MP neither objected the ruling nor filed an appeal.
On January 11, the government announced the transition to a new lands registration system which will see a number of titles cancelled and replaced to comply with the new law.
Lands CS Farida Karoney said that the Land Registration Act 2012 would solve the confusion occasioned by the different laws which had been manipulated and were a recipe for fraud, delays in service delivery, centralisation of land services and threats to the right to property.
“The ministry has thus embarked on a process of conversion of all parcels from the ambit of the repealed statutes with a view to migrating to the purview of the Land Registration Act 2012. I wish to assure land and property owners as well as the general public that the ministry is taking great care to protect property rights as guaranteed by the Constitution of Kenya and the laws that govern land administration and management in Kenya,” Karoney said.
All land titles registered under the previous laws; Indian Transfer of Property Act of 1882, the Government Lands Act (Cap.280), the Registration of Titles Act (Cap.281), the Land Titles Act (Cap.282) and the Registered Land Act (Cap.300) will be replaced.
CS Karoney added that her ministry would restore public confidence and digitization would be a priority. According to the CS, the exercise will be done gradually and transparently.
