Embakasi land firm to pay shareholder for trespass

A judge has directed Embakasi Ranching Company to pay one of its shareholders Sh500,000 as damages for trespass.

The company will shoulder the cost together with two private developers it allowed to encroach a 5,000-acre piece land owned by Lucy Muthee in Komarock area, Nairobi.

Justice Bernard Eboso, while sitting at the Environment and Lands Court in Nairobi, also ordered eviction of the two developers and demolition of the permanent structures they had built on the land.

The developments happened under the watch of police and the land buying company, court documents indicate.

However, the developers named as Teresia Wambui and John Kamau said their claim on the property was genuine as they blamed the land buying company for double allocation of plots.

But Justice Eboso found there was evidence to the effect that they were trespassers. He directed the company, which is said to own properties valued at Sh1.4 trillion, to process the titles of the said plots in the name of Ms Muthee.

Ms Muthee moved to court after her complaints to the company and the authourities went unaddressed.

Her case was that she held two shares in the company and was allocated two land parcels measuring 5,000 acres situated in Ruai off Komorock Road Nairobi. She was further allocated two bonus plots, named as Plot No Q167B and Plot 168B.

The court heard that in 2011, the land buying company permitted the two developers to trespass and remain on the suit properties. They are said to have damaged Ms Muthee’s perimeter fence and erected structures.

Despite complaintsy, the firm failed to take any action to stop the illegal activities making Ms Muthee apprehensive that the developers were acting in cahoots with the company officials.

She feared that the company would, with time, illegally transfer the properties from her to the two developers since the plots were in a prime area. The developers remained on the suit properties despite being issued with demand and notice of intention to sue.

Ms Muthee had not been issued with title deeds to the suit properties and she had lost her original share certificate on March 9, 2011 but had reported to police and got issued with an abstract.

Upon reporting the trespass to the company, the two developers were summoned to office but they did not turn up.

She also reported the trespass to Ruai Police Station, where officers interrogated the developers on their claim of ownership to the suit properties.