A Kenyan based in the US has been barred from his parents' home in Kenya after attempting to evict them over a land ownership dispute.
The Environment and Lands Court in Nakuru has issued a permanent injunction barring Mr Abel Hayora Nyaruri from entering his father's compound in the upmarket Ngata estate in Nakuru County.
Justice Anthony Ombwayo ruled that the property known as Njoro/Ngata Block 2/1613 (Kiboron 'A') belonged to Mr Hayora's father, Jason Nyaruri, and cancelled the title deed registered in Mr Hayora's name, saying it had been obtained illegally.
“And further due to the animosity between the parties, I hereby grant a permanent injunction restraining the 1st Defendant or his agents from trespassing, entering, accessing or in any way interfering with the plaintiffs’ possession of the said land,” ordered Justice Ombwayo.
In the case filed in 2020, Jason Nyaruri went to court accusing his son of fraudulently transferring to himself a piece of land on which he had built his house.
He claimed to be the owner of the land, having purchased it from the buyer, Agnes Chepkeiyo Chemngorem, for Sh350,000 in 2002, before building a family house where he moved in with his wife.
Mr Nyaruri claimed that he paid for the land from the contributions of his seven children, some of whom live in the US. The children, he said, had pooled funds with the aim of building a family home.
The court heard that Mr Nyaruri lived on the land until 2009, when he moved to the US after obtaining a green card and joined his wife, who had travelled there earlier.
Trouble began in 2019, however, when he returned from the US to find that his son Hayora had taken over the property, locked all the rooms in the house and taken away his title deed and allotment letter.
With the help of his daughter Bonchere, Mr Nyaruri conducted an investigation and discovered that the son had illegally transferred the land to himself and obtained another title deed in his name. This prompted him to go to court.
Mr Nyaruri said his son did not have a house or any building on the land in dispute, which belonged to him and the extended family.
In his defence, Mr Hayora, who claimed to be the owner of the land, told the court that he single-handedly financed its acquisition but his father wanted to take it away from him.
Mr Hayora said he had sent his mother about Sh500,000 in 2002 to buy the land, but his father took the money and tried to buy another piece of land with the intention of registering the title in his name.
However, after a family intervention, he said his father apologised to him and agreed to send more money to his mother to buy the land and build the house.
He provided evidence that he sent money through his sister, Ms Bonchere.
He also claimed that he was the one who maintained the house and facilitated the parents' travel abroad as well as their medication.
Mr Hayora told the court that he had raised the issue with the family sometime in 2015 when they were both in the country and agreed that the title was registered in Mr Nyaruri's name by mistake and decided to go to the land registry to correct it and have it transferred to his name.
He said it was his father who voluntarily surrendered the title to the Lands Office, where it was perforated.
However, the court ruled that Mr Nyaruri's title was valid and in order, while his son's was questionable.
According to Justice Ombwayo, the purported transfer of the land from Mr Nyaruri to Mr Hayora was riddled with procedural irregularities as Mr Hayora failed to prove that the transfer was signed by his father.
“The plaintiff denied signing the transfer and therefore it is the first defendants’ burden to prove that the plaintiff signed the transfer. The first defendant did not produce a duly registered transfer instrument and therefore he has not demonstrated that he followed procedure in transfer of land,” ruled Justice Ombwayo.
The court also found that the money for the purchase of the house was sent by Mr Hayora, but was intended to enable his parents to buy a house.
“There is no communication from Mr Hayora to his mother to indicate that the property was to be registered in his name. His mother believed that the property was bought by him to settle them and they took possession of the same and he constructed them a house and continued renovating the same,” said the judge.
The four-year legal battle has been marked by drama, with several reports made to the police about the behaviour of the parties.
Mr Hayora's 75-year-old mother, Esther Nyaruri, who is currently confined to a wheelchair, and her daughter, Beatrice Bonchere, reported to Baraka police that they had been assaulted by his son and his girlfriend, a case in which the police were accused of bias.
Ms Bonchere, through her lawyer Bernard Kipkoech, wrote several letters to the Directorate of Public Prosecutions and the Directorate of Criminal Investigations complaining about the behaviour of police officers in Rongai.
This was after a report had been made by Mr Hayora's girlfriend against his mother and the mother had been charged in court.
In addition, Mr Hayora was twice convicted of contempt of court after he was found guilty of disobeying orders not to interfere with his mother's peaceful stay in the house.
