Thika Road footbridge faces demolition as court upholds Sh11 billion Pangani land ruling
On Thika Road, the footbridges in Pangani, Muthaiga Police Station/Mathari Hospital (pictured), National Youth Service and next to Safari Park Hotel.
The Environment and Land Court (ELC) has declined to quash documents held by a trust that claims ownership of a 44-acre parcel of land in Nairobi’s Pangani area.
The court further rejected an application by a group of squatters claiming ownership of the land, saying they had failed to prove adverse possession.
The group claimed that the land, which is owned Sheikh Fazal Ihali Noordin Charitable Trust, belongs to the government.
They further submitted that there was an imminent threat of demolition of a public footbridge standing on the property, pursuant to an order made by the Land Acquisition Tribunal in September 2025.
But the court dismissed the cases, saying there is a High Court judgment delivered in May 2012 stating that the land belonged to the Trust and the issues raised by the petitioners and squatters already determined, and the decision remained unchallenged.
“This court cannot therefore revisit that determination or re-litigate the validity of the renewal process, as doing so would amount to an impermissible collateral attack on a subsisting judgment,” said the court.
In September, the Tribunal gave the government 90 days to demolish the footbridge on the Thika Superhighway after ruling that Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA) had encroached on a private property without compensating the Trust.
St Benjamin Clinic Supplies and 11 interested parties, led by Abdulaziz Gakuria and Silas Bor, filed the case in 2012.
In submissions filed in February this year, the petitioners said they discovered evidence of fraud and use of an unregistered Trust to claim compensation on public land.
In the application, Mr Gakuria stated that “the public funds set to be lost on fictitious compensation amount to Sh11 billion, and unless the court intervenes, taxpayers' money will be lost and dissipated”.
They said the government was in the process of acquiring parts of the land for the expansion of Thika Superhighway and the construction of the link road.
But the court rejected their claim and that of a group of squatters, calling themselves Umoja Self Help Group- Kwa Njoroge Village Residents, claiming the land.
The Trust urged the court to dismiss the claim. “The plaintiffs may have a remedy elsewhere, it is undoubtedly is not in the claim made before this court as against the suit property,” said the court.
In its submissions, the Trust asked the court to consider whether colonial or ancestral occupation entitles any descendants of the alleged original occupants to ownership and whether that entitlement supersedes a registered owner’s right to protection of title.
“The law as currently enacted on Kenya does not recognise and or enshrine a claim for ownership of land on the basis of colonial squatters,” the Trust said.
In 2012, Sheikh Fazal Ihali Noordin Charitable Trust filed a case seeking to compel the Ministry of Lands and Housing to renew its lease and issue a title deed for the Pangani land.
The High Court then ruled in favour of the Trust after the government failed to defend the case.
The Sheikh Fazal Trust sued the Finance and Lands ministries, alongside the Commissioner of Lands and Registrar of Titles, in 2005 after the government staked a claim in the same property.
The government intended to develop a staff housing project for civil servants, and a title deed was issued in the Ministry of Finance’s name.
The court heard that in March, 2003, the Ministry of Lands and Housing issued two title deeds for the same Pangani land.
On the one hand, the ministry issued a title deed to St Benjamin Memorial Clinic Supplies on March 18, 2003. The title deed was issued on the strength of St Benjamin’s February 13, 1997, application for allotment of the property.
St Benjamin’s title deed was only awaiting the insertion of an indent reference (IR) number – a unique identifier allocated to every registered piece of land – before releasing the document to the firm.
Three days later, the same ministry issued a title deed to the Sheikh Fazal Ihali Noordin Charitable Trust. That document stated that the trust would hold a 99-year lease starting July 1, 2002.
The Sheikh Fazal Trust trail of documents indicated that it owned the land since 1942 and that it had successfully renewed its lease.
“In the premises, the court finds that the Petitioner, St Benjamin Memorial Clinic Supplies Limited, has failed to establish a legally recognisable proprietary right over L.R. No. 209/193 (now Nairobi Block 37/63),” said the court.
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