Nairobi City County lost a petition seeking to be declared the owner of controversial plots in Embakasi, said by the Kenya Airports Authority KAA Justice Oscar Angote, who dismissed the case by the county stating that City Hall did not prove ownership.
The Environmental and Land Court judge said the county did not present evidence to prove how it acquired the four-acre parcel in Embakasi Village and show that title documents held by KAA were fake.
The court finds that the particulars in the Valuation Roll cannot prove ownership of the suit properties in the circumstances. The court is unable to make a finding that the suit properties belong to the plaintiff, said Justice Oscar Angote.
Last year, City Hall lost a similar case. The court went ahead and slapped the county with a fine of 1.5 million for trespass after it tried to evict airport staff in 1998.
The KAA said the land was allocated by the government and the government established a housing estate known as Embakasi Village. The houses were for its employees known as the Department of Aerodromes and other civil servants working at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.
But in January 1998, city council officials stormed the houses, claiming to own the property, and tried to evict the occupants unless they paid rent. The matter was settled by consent and the agency moved to court. Some 42 houses belong to KAA but the market and social hall belong to the county, according to the consent.
The city county was at it again, and moved to evict KAA staff from four houses unless they paid rent, prompting a new court battle.
City Hall said that although KAA claimed to have a grant of the parcels in 1998, it exerted pressure on the defunct city council in 2007 to sell the plots to the agency, but the request was denied because the land was not available for alienation.
The county government submitted three allotment letters to prove that it owned the plots starting with one issued in 1964.