Justice Lucy Gacheru quashed NLC’s decision to revoke the company’s title for the disputed land, which it uses to rear pigs.
When reclaiming the vast land in Uplands Lari, the company sued the commission arguing that the revocation of the title was not fair and that the commission had acted arbitrarily.
It is said the land was previously owned by the defunct Uplands Bacon Factory Ltd.
Meat products dealer Farmer’s Choice Kenya has reclaimed a 248-acre piece of land in Kiambu that the National Land Commission believes is public property.
In a judgment issued by the Environment and Lands Court in Thika, Justice Lucy Gacheru quashed NLC’s decision to revoke the company’s title for the disputed land, which it uses to rear pigs.
When reclaiming the vast land in Uplands Lari, the company sued the commission arguing that the revocation of the title was not fair and that the commission had acted arbitrarily.
It is said the land was previously owned by the defunct Uplands Bacon Factory Ltd.
The commission had in a Kenya Gazette notice on March 1, 2019, directed the company to surrender the land to Kiambu County, which was supposed to own it as trustee for the public.
The NLC revoked the company’s title and held that the property described as L.R7593 “not available for any allocation now or in the future”. The claim for the land had been raised by the county government. But the meat processor led by its managing director James F.W Taylor fought the decision and moved to court with a Judicial Review application insisting that it is the registered owner of the land.
Mr Taylor told Justice Gacheru that it was unjust for the NLC to wholly adopt the complaint by the county government and not interrogate the veracity of the claims.
He said he learnt on September 26 that Farmers Choice was to appear before an NLC hearing on September 27 with the agenda of reverting the land to the government.
The meat processor said NLC denied it the right for adequate notice of the hearing, adding that a day’s notice was short for adequate representations.
“It is also not in doubt that the said invitation was made on September 26, 2018, and that the hearing was set to be on September 27, 2018, and it was conducted on the said date. This court concurs with the applicant that this was not sufficient time to seek representation nor was it sufficient time for it to put its house in order,” ruled Justice Gacheru when allowing Farmers Choice to retain control of the land. NLC failed to participate in the case.
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