Former Nairobi Provincial Commissioner Davis Nathan Chelogoi has lost a court bid to stop the prosecution of his employee for occupying a disputed Loresho property.
The Environment and Land Court dismissed his application, ruling that he lacked legal standing to challenge the criminal trial.
This comes amid revelations that the disputed land is registered under two parallel title deeds—one in Mr Chelogoi’s name and another held by businessmen Ashok Rupshi Shah and Hitenkumar Amritlal Raja.
The court dismissed Chelogoi’s application seeking permission to file judicial review proceedings against the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) and the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI). It ruled that Chelogoi had not demonstrated that the prosecution directive directly targeted him.
“The applicant was neither investigated nor charged pursuant to the said directive of the DPP and is therefore improperly litigating on behalf of third parties capable of pursuing their own remedies,” the court stated.
Chelogoi had sought to quash a July 24, 2025, directive in which the ODPP instructed DCI investigators to arrest and prosecute individuals occupying a parcel of land in Loresho, Nairobi. The directive ordered police to charge occupants with forcible detainer and trespass.
Chelogoi also sought orders blocking the DCI from arresting or prosecuting his workers, arguing that the move was meant to force him out of the property through criminal proceedings.
In his affidavit, he stated that police had raided the land at dawn on July 31, 2025, arresting some of his workers. He said he had been in continued occupation and possession of the suit land since 1995.
“Officers from the Nairobi Area Regional Criminal Investigation Office entered the property and arrested my employee,” he told the court. He argued that the directive disregarded existing court proceedings and amounted to an indirect eviction without a court order.
However, the ODPP opposed the application, stating that the decision to prosecute was made independently after police investigations.
Former senior lands officer Andrew Aseri Kirungu (left) and former Nairobi Deputy Provincial Commissioner Davis Nathan Chelogoi before the Milimani Law Courts on May 29, 2024.
Photo credit: Wilfred Nyangaresi | Nation Media Group
Prosecutors maintained that criminal proceedings cannot be halted merely because of a civil dispute over the same land.
The DCI told the court that investigations suggested Chelogoi’s title may have been fraudulently obtained. Official records indicated the land had already been allocated and registered to another entity before Chelogoi’s claimed allotment.
Police also revealed that Chelogoi faces a separate criminal case in a magistrate’s court over allegations of fraudulently acquiring the property title.
Sergeant Nicolaus Osuri of the DCI headquarters swore an affidavit stating that 19 prosecution witnesses, including current and former officials from the State Department for Lands and Physical Planning, had testified in Chelogoi's criminal case.
He added that investigators found that Chelogoi’s letter of allotment appeared forged. Records showed the land had been registered in favour of Liney Company Limited, making it unavailable for allocation.
Additionally, the allotment’s reference corresponded to an unrelated planning file titled “Proposed Lions Club International Office Plot.” The officer claimed that Chelogoi accepted the allocation through a letter dated February 13, 1992, nearly three years before the alleged allotment date.
The court ruled that Chelogoi failed to prove the ODPP directive personally affected him, noting that his employee—not Chelogoi himself—was arrested.
“The non-joinder of the person allegedly directly affected by the impugned decision of the DPP, which the applicant is seeking to quash, is fatal,” the court said. It added that civil disputes do not automatically halt criminal prosecutions.
The court also rejected Chelogoi's claim that the DPP's directive was issued and acted upon without due regard to the subsisting court processes and without affording him an opportunity to be heard or to present his documentation prior to the prosecutorial decision.
"There is no evidence to show that the decision of the DPP was to affect him directly," it ruled. It concluded that Chelogoi had not shown an arguable case that would justify granting permission to pursue judicial review proceedings.
The ruling marks the latest development in a long-running dispute over the Loresho property between Chelogoi and businessmen Shah and Raja.
Court records show competing titles for the land on Lower Kabete Road. Shah and Raja hold title registered as L.R. No.18485 (I.R. 64011), while Chelogoi claims ownership under L.R. No.18485 (I.R. 232908).
