The Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) has lost a prime property worth millions of shillings to tycoon Ashok Doshi for failing to prosecute a case it had filed in court 17 years ago.
The Environment and Land Court in Mombasa ruled that the case against Supernova Properties Ltd could not be sustained due to lack of evidence.
Justice Sila Munyao noted that KPA did not serve the company, the Commissioner of Lands and the Chief Land Registrar, who were sued in the land case with the court documents for them to file a response to the suit in time.
“I must come to the conclusion that summons to enter appearance have never been served upon Supernova Properties Ltd. To call upon the company to defend a suit which has been idle in court for more than 15 years would be an injustice, it is hereby struck out,” said the judge.
The court further noted that there was no record of anything having happened in the file from the year 2005 to the year 2017 when the suit was listed for dismissal for want of prosecution.
The ruling has dealt a blow to the KPA in its efforts to recover the property worth millions of shillings, which also has an office block constructed on it.
KPA had sued the company in 2005 to recover the plot, claiming ownership. The land, Mombasa/Block XLVII/113, is among several plots in Mombasa that KPA wants to recover from private developers. The ruling followed an application by the firm in which it asked that the case against it be struck out for lack of service and for non-prosecution for more than 14 years.
It filed the case through its advocate Willis Oluga lamenting that it only became aware of the case in 2019 through an advertisement in the local dailies.
Therefore, argued the firm, the suit had abated and it would be prejudiced should it be allowed to continue.
It also argued that KPA’s claim over the land has been overtaken by events, following the ruling in which the National Lands Commission’s decision to revoke its title documents over the property was quashed by the court.
The firm further argued it had lost all documents and evidence it required to defend itself and explain how it acquired the title.
“For instance, the original allottee of the land Jackson Suter, who sold the firm the land cannot be traced,” said the advocate.
KPA, through its legal officer Stephen Kyandih, insisted the firm had been informed of the case, noting that it (KPA) has always been keen and interested in prosecuting the case.
He further argued that quashing of the revocation of the company’s ownership documents had been founded on a procedural issue, and not the merits of the claim.
The dispute stems from allegations that the land was registered in the name of the general manager, East African Railways and Harbours Corporation, for and on its behalf. In 1978, the corporation was disbanded, and KPA was established as the successor in title and thus it took over the disputed property.
In 1999, the Commissioner of Lands allocated the property to Mr Suter on a 99-year lease and the same month he was allocated, he sold the property to Supernova.
KPA, therefore, wanted the court to cancel the firm’s ownership documents and it be declared and registered as the proprietor of the disputed land.
