NAIROBI ( Halbeeg News) – A court in Kenya has ordered the country’s former President to pay 10 million USD to a family for land forcefully taken by the president two decades ago.
Daniel Arap Moi who served the office the longest time in Kenya’s history was accused of grabbing a 53-acre piece of land owned by ex-chief Noah Kipngeny Chelugui during the era.
According to the statement by High Court in Eldoret, Moi forcibly took over the land through a scheme that involved ordering lands officials to make the necessary transfers to register the property in 1983.
The former president then sold the land to a firm owned by the Jaswant Rai family in 2007.
According to Daily Nation, Mr. Chelugui’s 85-year-old wife Susan and son David sued Mr. Moi, Rai Plywood, the District Land Registrar, Uasin Gishu District, the Registrar of Titles and the National Land Commission in 2014.
The High Court judge Antony Ombwayo has late last ruled that the former President’s move was illegal.
He ordered both Mr. Moi and Rai Plywood (K) Limited to pay Mr Chelugui’s family Sh1 billion — the current market value of the prime property.
Justice Ombwayo noted that the nature of the people involved — high-ranking government bureaucrats on instruction from the President — made it necessary to accept the suit as a constitutional petition.
“There is no iota of evidence as to how the former President was registered as the proprietor of the suit land, which was part of (property) that belonged to Noah Kimngeny Chelugui. The state counsel stated that these were orders from above by the first defendant, who was the President (Moi),” said the judge.
“The court finds that the statement borders on illegality, impunity, and procedural impropriety. This court cannot protect property that was acquired through impropriety.”
The firm told judge Antony Ombwayo That it bought the land from Mr. Moi in 2007 after doing a thorough search that showed there was no claim to the prime property by anyone other than the former President.
The former President and Rai Plywood insisted that the suit was a claim for land veiled as a constitutional petition.
With constitutional petitions, however, a judge can overlook the time taken to bring the matter to court.
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