Court freezes sale of Sh50million Kitale School land grabbed by ex-Kenya Seed MD Nathaniel Tum
Justice Nzili also issued a temporary injunction restraining the respondent from selling, transferring, leasing, or in any way dealing with the suit property as he ordered, barring the collection of rental income from commercial activities on the property
The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) has been granted orders to preserve four hectares of land belonging to Kitale School in the town’s CBD.
The Sh50 million property, which was originally designated for educational use by Kitale School, was irregularly and illegally allocated to the late Nathaniel Tum, the then Chairperson of the Parents Teachers Association (PTA) in 1994, and now has a petrol station, supermarket, warehouse, and rental apartments developed on it.
In his ruling last week, Justice Christopher Nzili of the Environment and Land Court in Kitale established a prima facie case and demonstrated a risk of dissipation of the illegally acquired public asset.
He issued a temporary injunction restraining the 1st respondent, Edwin Kipchirchir Tum, the administrator of Tum’s estate from selling, transferring, leasing, or in any way dealing with the suit property as he ordered, barring the collection of rental income from commercial activities on the property.
The Environment and Lands judge ordered leave for the anti-corruption commission to appoint a receiver to manage the developments on the property, as he directed the opening of a joint interest-earning account between EACC and Tum’s estate to preserve all rental income pending final determination of the case.
This comes as investigations by EACC established that the land formerly registered as Kitale Municipality Block 12/132 (now Block 12/236) was irregularly hived off and allocated to the late Tum, a former Kenya Seed Company Managing Director, in collusion with a former Commissioner of Lands Wilson Gachanja.
The illegally acquired land was part of a parcel of land surrendered by the Anglican Church (then CMS) in 1929 for public education.
It was designated for school expansion and public amenities as early as 1973; however, it was fraudulently allocated for private commercial use.
Further investigations revealed that the illegally hived-off portion of land had encroached significantly onto the school’s infrastructure, such as the dining hall, dormitories, and sewer system.
The Department of Survey demanded the surrender and correction of the lease certificate given to Tum on September 26, 2007, ostensibly in an effort to clean up the irregular allocation and make it seem lawful or less noticeable.
The goal of this move was to remove the encroached school infrastructure from the title. Nevertheless, only about 0.4 hectares were recovered as a result of the surrender, meaning that vital infrastructure, like the sewer system, is still located inside the contested Block 12/132.
