The Supreme Court has overturned a Court of Appeal ruling that ordered the estates of former President Daniel Moi and tycoon Jaswant Rai to pay an Eldoret family more than Sh1 billion for allegedly grabbing their land in 1983.
The family of Noah Chelugui, a former chief who died in 2005, accused the former president of acquiring the 53-acre land under mysterious circumstances.
Chelugui’s widow Susan and son David sued Mr Moi, Rai Plywood and land officials in Eldoret, claiming the land was forcibly taken from their father on September 21, 1983.
The Supreme Court, presided over by Chief Justice Martha Koome, said there was nothing on record to suggest that Moi and Rai Plywood acquired the 53-acre land fraudulently or irregularly.
“From the foregoing analysis, the inescapable conclusion to which we must arrive is that there was no basis for the appellate court to fault the validity of the 1st appellant’s title to the suit property,” said Justices Koome, Mohamed Ibrahim, Smokin Wanjala, Isaac Lenaola and William Ouko.
The Supreme Court judges overturned decisions by the High Court and Court of Appeal that ordered Moi’s estate and Rai Plywood to pay Sh1.06 billion to Chelugui’s family.
Senior lawyer Janmohammed Zehrabanu, the executor of Moi’s will, argued that Chelugui had never complained about the loss of the property before his death and that no evidence had been produced to support claims of lost or stolen property.
It also said that the lower court had failed to take into account the admission of receipt of Sh70,000 or to appreciate that Mr Stanley Metto, who was alleged to have obtained the original title by fraud, had not been sued during his lifetime or thereafter.
Rai Plywood contended that it was an innocent purchaser of the land from Moi for value without knowledge of the defect in title.
The Chelugui family argued that all efforts to recover the land were futile because various land registrars in Eldoret and Uasin Gishu and other officials in the Ministry of Lands were complicit in the acts that led to the loss of the land.
“In view of the foregoing, it is clear that between 1983 and 2014, neither Noah Chelugui nor his estate pursued any legal redress aimed at vindicating his claim of violation of his constitutional right to property. Such delay could not be anything else but inordinate, warranting a credible explanation,” the judges said.
In his defence, Mr Rai said he bought the land from Mr Moi in 2007 after conducting a search and confirming that it belonged to the former president.
Mr Moi’s family had challenged the decision of the Land and Environment Court, saying the judge was wrong to use the 2010 Constitution to decide the case instead of the laws in force at the time.
In a 2019 ruling, Environment and Land Court judge Anthony Ombwayo ruled that Moi had unlawfully taken over the land from Mr Chelugui and later sold it to Rai Plywood, a company owned by tycoon Rai.
The Moi family’s appeal to the Court of Appeal was dismissed in July 2022, forcing the estate, led by Moi’s executor, lawyer Janmohammed, to head to the Supreme Court.
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