The estate of former Kimilili MP Suleiman Murunga has suffered a blow after a judge dismissed its petition to be declared the legal owner of a disputed plot on Kenyatta Avenue, Nairobi, where popular Simmers Restaurant once stood.
Other than dismissing the application to be declared the legal owner of the two plots, Justice Oguttu Mboya further ordered the estate of Mr Murunga, who died in October last year, to clear unpaid rent amounting to Sh22.4 million, to Nilestar Holdings Ltd, the owners of the land.
The Environment and Land court judge dismissed claims by Mr Murunga that he had been allocated the land by the National Land Commission (NLC) in 2011, when the lease issued to Nilestar Holdings expired, saying the allotment was illegal.
“In the absence of a certificate of title, issued to and in favour of the Plaintiff (Murunga) herein, the claim by and on behalf of the Plaintiff to be the legal owner of the suit property is therefore misconceived and legally untenable. Instructively, the claim herein is built on quicksand,” said the judge.
Mr Murunga filed the case in 2013 seeking to be declared the legal owner of the two plots, arguing that the landlord/tenant relationship ceased to exist once the lease issued to Nilestar Holdings expired in 2009.
The former legislator sought a permanent injunction restraining Nilestar Holdings, Green Valley Ltd and its directors from interfering with his possession of the land or demanding rent against him.
He also sought an order declaring the commission’s move to withdraw his letter of allotment in February 2016 irregular.
The former restaurateur was kicked out of the disputed plot in 2018 and the once-popular drinking joint flattened after years of court battles.
In a separate case, Mr Murunga had sued the directors of the two companies seeking compensation following the destruction of the restaurant.
He had stated that strangers descended on the property and destroyed his entire investments, stocks, furniture and equipment and rendered his employees jobless.
In the judgment of Friday, January 16, Justice Mboya directed Mr Murunga to pay a rental income of Sh10.6 million from May 2013 and March 2018 plus a yearly increment of Sh864,000 during the same period.
“Flowing from the deliberations, it is crystal clear that the Plaintiff herein has neither established nor proven his claim or entitlement to the suit property. To this end, it is my finding that the Plaintiff’s case is devoid of merits,” said the judge.
The estate of Murunga will also have to pay the costs of the suit, expected to be more than Sh100 million.
“From the evidence on record, there is no gainsaying that the Plaintiff herein has not been issued with the certificate of title/lease over and in respect of the suit property. In this regard, it is common ground that the Plaintiff cannot contend that the same is the legal owner of the suit property,” said the judge.
Nilestar Holdings is owned by Madatali Ebrahim (who has since died), his son Jalaledin Ebrahim and Jamilla Ebrahim while Green Valley belongs to Ms Margaret Wairimu Magugu, the wife of former minister Arthur Magugu.
