According to the NLC, the management of Weston Hotel did not provide any information explaining how it came to take possession of the land.
Instead, the hotel's management only gave information that Priority Limited and Monene Investment were in possession of title documents from the Commission.
The commission, however, maintains that no evidence exists of exchange of money between the already registered landowners of LR. 209/14372 and the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA).
NLC also indicated that KCAA voluntarily engaged in a process of evacuating a site that was reserved for it near the Wilson Airport and accepted an alternative site while relinquishing claim of the initial site.
The commission further informed that KCAA never moved to the second site and their headquarters at JKIA were leased to them by the Kenya Airports Authority (KAA).
With the developments on the land under question, KCAA was reluctant to seek court intervention.
Despite the fact that KCAA retained the services of a law firm in its dealings with the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC), the authority did not instruct the law firm to sue for the return of the property.
Nonetheless, the Authority’s request to the Commissioner of Police for intervention was rejected. Pleas to the Register of Titles and the Commissioner of Lands were also unsuccessful or seemingly disregarded. In the end, the dispute fell on the table of the NLC.
The Commission notes that it is not disputed that the subject parcel belonged to the KCAA and that the letter of allotment issued to Priority Limited and Monene Investment was nothing short of irregular.
Initially, DP William Ruto admitted that Weston Hotel land was illegally acquired. Such implies that the management of the hotel is a bona fide purchaser that engaged in the acquisition without noticing defects in the title for the land.
Nonetheless, it is clear that the government agency, KCAA, lost an important asset in this case.
A keen analysis of the situation shows that both the minister and Commissioner of Lands at the time are to blame for the occurrence since they failed to act on the irregular allocation of the land.
KCAA management also faces the blame of vacating the land without establishing if the alternative subject parcel was available for allocation.
NLC hence made a find that the current market value of the land ought to be determined and the management of Weston will be required to pay that market price to the KCAA so that it may acquire alternative land of equal value.
