More than 9,000 pensioners of the defunct Kenya Post and Telecommunications Corporation (KPTC) secured a crucial win after the Court of Appeal affirmed their ownership of a contested Sh1 billion property in the Nairobi upmarket Upper Hill.
Justices Hannah Okwengu, John Mativo and Ngenye Macharia on Friday ended a two-decade dispute over the two-acre property, terming a claim by a Moi-era bigshot “hot air”.
At the heart of the dispute was a claim by Park Avenue Investments Limited- a company associated with businessman Ken Boit, who was an ally of former President Daniel Moi.
The businessman claimed to have acquired the property in 1996, two years before KPTC passed its ownership to Telposta Pension Scheme.
The scheme- which manages pensions of more than 9,000 former workers of the KPTC- moved to the Court of Appeal in 2016 after the High Court declared Intercountries Importers and Exporters Limited owner of the property, leaving the administration of the pension almost crippled.
The title of the land came to be under the name of Intecountries after Trust Bank Limited (in liquidation), sold the land used as security for a loan advanced to Park Avenue Investments after the latter defaulted.
But delivering the judgment on July 12, the judges found that Park Avenue Investments acquired the property fraudulently in collusion with officials at the Ministry of Lands.
“The court cannot protect a title that is irregularly obtained. In this case, the Commissioner of Lands had no jurisdiction to reallocate land that was placed at the disposal of a public body by the government and vested on the public body through powers emanating from an Act of Parliament,” the judges stated.
Park Investments had argued it was the first registered owner of the property, but the judges said the courts can only protect a legally acquired a title.
The judges’ decision is yet another in a series of several where the courts have made bold decisions to deter the grabbing of public properties, including properties owned by Kenya Railways, Kenya Revenue Authority, the Pyrethrum Board of Kenya, and the East African Portland Cement.
