A judgment by the Environment and Land Court in Nyandarua has implicated former Nakuru Lands Registrar Eric Nyamu and County Secretary Samuel Mwaura in an unlawful attempt by the Nakuru County Government to forcibly take over Nakuru War Memorial Hospital.
The judgment lays bare the alleged impunity of public officials in land transactions, which the court linked to persistent ownership disputes and the loss of billions of shillings worth of property across the country.
Land registry officials are accused of acting on instructions from, or colluding with, powerful individuals in government to dispossess private citizens of their property, forcing them to incur huge legal costs and spend years fighting to reclaim it.
In this case, the court placed Mr Nyamu and Dr Mwaura at the centre of a contentious dispute over 27 acres of land in Nakuru. The dispute culminated in a failed attempt by the county government to take over the management of Nakuru War Memorial Hospital.
The battle, which began in 2023, escalated in October that year when the county government moved onto the hospital property, claiming to have taken over its management after the cancellation of a lease extension previously granted to the hospital's private management.
During a night raid, patients were forcibly transferred to the annex wing of the public Nakuru Level Five Hospital, effectively shutting down the private facility as a protracted legal battle unfolded.
The entrance to the Nakuru War Memorial Hospital in Nakuru City.
Photo credit: File| Nation Media Group
Despite court intervention and orders intended to facilitate the hospital's reopening, compliance became a major challenge. For three years, the facility remained closed, with reports of patient deaths, medicines expiring and more than 300 people losing their jobs making headlines.
In its judgment delivered on Thursday, the court highlighted irregularities and illegalities in the conduct of public officers that had contributed to the dispute.
The judge devoted sections of the judgment to the conduct of Dr Mwaura and Mr Nyamu, examining their roles in the events that led to the attempted takeover and the subsequent legal battle.
The court noted that the county government, through Dr Mwaura, had written to the National Land Commission (NLC), seeking to have the 27 acres registered in the county's name for the development of a medical facility.
The request came two years after Nakuru War Memorial Hospital had successfully applied for an extension of its lease, following the expiry of the original lease in 2021.
After receiving no response from the NLC, the county wrote to the lands registrar on April 6, 2023, urging him to cancel the hospital's lease extension on grounds that it had been obtained through fraud and forgery.
Mr Nyamu acted on the request and cancelled the lease extension on May 19, 2023. He subsequently had the Government Printer publish a gazette notice titled “Loss of Lease Certificate”, although its contents indicated that the lease had been issued erroneously.
The notice gave the lessee 90 days to surrender the lease, failing which the land would revert to the government.
War Memorial Hospital Director Dr Simon Mwangi addresses the media at the facility in Nakuru City on October 15, 2026, after a ruling by the Environment and Land Court in Ol Kalou, ordered the facility's immediate reopening following nearly two years of closure over a land dispute with Nakuru County Government.
Following the cancellation, Dr Mwaura convened a press briefing on October 17, 2023, to announce the county government's decision to take over the hospital's management. He claimed that the land had reverted to the county, which he described as the custodian of public land.
The court, however, found the actions of both Dr Mwaura and Mr Nyamu unlawful and contrary to constitutional provisions governing the conduct of public officers.
On the lands registrar, the court found that he had acted outside the law by succumbing to pressure from Dr Mwaura to cancel the lease extension.
“The Land Registrar had allowed an outsider who was not supposed to work in his office to come and influence him to cancel another's title even where the law does not allow. Acting as he did means that landowners would not benefit from the law and the Constitution,” the judge stated.
The court questioned how the registrar could advertise the loss of a title deed when the titleholder had not reported it missing.
The judge noted that the hospital was located in the same town, less than two kilometres from the lands office — a distance that could easily be covered on foot. The registrar could have visited the facility to establish the whereabouts of the title deed, the court observed.
Alternatively, the court said, he should simply have informed the county that cancelling the title was neither feasible nor lawful under the circumstances.
The judge warned that allowing such actions would undermine the security of land ownership, particularly where property had been used as collateral for loans.
“If we were to go by the Land Registrar’s argument, for all charged land the titles must be cancelled. How safe are landowners who use their lands as collateral or even the chargees? At this rate the banks will have no business. If you cancel a title that is charged, assuming the loan is still not paid, how will the statutory power of sale be exercised? This is the best way to kill banks,” the court said.
Rowdy youths chase away medics who had arrived at the War Memorial Hospital in Nakuru on July 26, 2024 with hope of resuming work following a Nyandarua court order that barred the county government of Nakuru from interfering with the hospital's operations and possession of the property.
Photo credit: Boniface Mwangi | Nation Media Group
The court concluded that the registrar's actions were intended to dispossess the hospital's management of its rights over the property. It urged holders of public office to maintain high standards of integrity and conduct themselves in a manner that inspires public confidence.
“A person in the position of a Land Registrar should always behave in a manner to give confidence to landowners who should never be worried that their records at the lands office can be tampered with, unlawfully. One should sleep soundly and doesn't have to keep applying for an official search to find out whether his title has been cancelled or tampered with,” the judgment stated.
On Dr Mwaura, the court questioned his conduct and his understanding of the respective mandates of the county and national governments.
It found that he had exerted undue pressure on the lands registrar to cancel the lease extension unlawfully before claiming that the land had reverted to the county government.
The court noted that the NLC, rather than the county government, was responsible for the administration of public land and was the lessor in the disputed title.
“The 1st Defendant’s Samuel Mwangi Mwaura behaved like the proverbial elephant who asked to be accommodated but ended up behaving like and dictating to the Land Registrar on what titles to cancel,” the judge said.
The court added: “And to make his intentions clear, immediately the Land Registrar gazetted his intention to cancel the Certificate of Title, Mwaura was already out to the press with the statement that the county had from the said date taken over the management of the hospital and that as the custodian of public land in Nakuru County. These were all lies.”
The judge also noted that Dr Mwaura had not produced title deeds to establish the county's ownership of the land following the cancellation. Further, the county had sought allocation of the property only after the lease extension had already been granted to Nakuru War Memorial Hospital.
The court also questioned the county government's claim that it intended to use the land to provide health services, noting that the hospital was already offering such services on the disputed property.
