Twenty one families in Rongai, Nakuru County, are facing imminent eviction after losing a protracted court battle over a 70-acre property sold by the Agricultural Finance Corporation (AFC) in a disputed auction.
Originally charged as collateral for a loan, the land changed hands multiple times before AFC auctioned it to Mr Stephen Kibowen for Sh5 million on May 27, 2014, despite prior loan repayments by the previous owner.
The land, Lembus/Kilombe/157, was used as collateral by the original owner Jeruto Tapkili, who later sold her interest to a Mr Samuel Kipruto after struggling to repay the loan.
Although Mr Kipruto (now deceased) resumed repayments and paid nearly Sh4, 924,000 million, AFC mistakenly auctioned the land to Kibowen for Sh5 million in 2014.
Court records show the sale went through despite Kipruto’s payments and his family’s surprise grew when Kibowen moved to take possession of the land.
After the Kipruto family contested the sale through the illegal auction with AFC, the corporation recognised its error upon doing checks and established it had made a mistake in disposing off the land.
AFC then attempted to refund Kibowen’s money but he refused and obtained a court order to transfer the land to him.
Seeking legal remedy, Mr Kibowen filed an additional case in Nakuru Lands Court to permanently bar the Kipruto’s from the land after learning the family was yet to vacate the property by 2015.
He further sought to be compensated for the loss he suffered after being unable to commercialise the property as he had intended to cultivate hay on it for an annual profit of Sh4.5 million.
In the case in which he has sued 16 of the 21 family members, Mr Kibowen says he did not know that Mr Kipruto owned the plot as it was then registered under the name of the AFC and Ms Tapkili when he sought to take possession.
But threatened by the loss of the land, the Kipruto’s family and Tapkili filed separate lawsuits against AFC and the auctioneers claiming that no required sale notice had been issued to them before the auction. They sued the corporation and the auctioneers for illegal auction of the land.
One of the defendants Simon Ruto told the court that Mr Kipruto, his father, was the initial owner of the land which he acquired in 1977.
Later in 1996, he sold it to Ms Jeruto Tapkili, who was paying through a bank loan. Ms Tapkili however sold the land back to his father in 2013 and the father took over the loan obligation.
When he complained to the AFC, the corporation cancelled the auction and sent cheques to Mr Kibowen for refund of his money but he declined.
Mr Kipruto also filed a case to challenge the sale after the court declined to enjoin him in the case.
He accused the AFC of failing to issue him or Ms Tapkili with a notice of the intention to sell as required in law. He sought to have the hearing of Mr Kibowen’s case stayed.
In his judgement on October 24, Justice Mwangi Njoroge Upheld Kibowen’s rights declaring his purchase legally binding and exclusive of the families’ claims.
“This court therefore finds for the plaintiff (Kibowen) on the present issue and rules that the plaintiff acquired legal interest in the suit land to the exclusion of the defendants and thus ought to be declared the owner thereof,” stated Justice Njoroge.
The judge barred the families from claiming ownership of the land and directed them to vacate within 30 days failure to which they will be evicted.
He further slapped the family with damages amounting to Sh30 million for the loss they caused to Mr Kibowen after they failed to vacate the land.
“In the light of the foregoing analysis this court is satisfied that the sum of Sh10,000,000 and Sh20,000,000 suffice as damages awardable to the plaintiff against the defendants for trespass and mesne profits respectively,” ruled Justice Njoroge.
