The Kenya Army have received a reprieve after a court ruling granted them orders to take over 90 acres of prime land based in Embakasi, Nairobi.
Court of Appeal judges reversed an initial decision that had required the military to pay Ksh1.5 billion to a private firm that had sought ownership of the disputed property.
However, the judges reviewed the evidence and ordered that Torino Enterprises were not the legitimate owners of the land which is currently occupied by the Kenya Army Mine Action Training Centre.
Justices Daniel Musinga, Agnes Murgor and Jamilla Mohamed ruled that the land had been acquired illegally and that it belonged to the defunct Nairobi city council.
Media reports indicated that the Commissioner of Lands had sold the disputed land to Renton Company Limited through an allotment letter dated December 1999.
Renton company then sold the land two years later to Torino Enterprises for Ksh12 million for a term of 99 years.
The Court of Appeal ruled that the Commissioner of Lands didn't have powers to allot the land to Renton.
"The Commissioner of Lands did not have authority in law to allot the land and therefore no valid interest on the same could be conferred upon Renton and subsequently to the respondent herein.
"The process leading to the acquisition of title by the respondent was flawed and tainted with illegality,” the judges stated.
Initially, the military had been ordered by the High Court in 2011 to either surrender the Embakasi land or pay Ksh1.5 billion to the private firm.
“The respondent shall, therefore, within the next 30 days, restore the possession of the suit land back to the petitioner in the same condition as it was when it was unlawfully acquired or alternatively pay the petitioner the sum of Ksh1.53 billion being the current market value of the said land, as per the valuation report produced in court, which was not disputed by the respondent,” read part of the orders from High Court judge Jean Gacheche.
