Kenya ELC No. 2054 of 2007 Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission ¬vs¬ Paul Moses Ngetha & Anor
The Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission (now Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission) received a complaint that over 100 City Council of Nairobi houses (now County of Nairobi) had been illegally allocated to private individuals without following due process in the disposal of public property contrary to the Local Government Act, Government Land Act and the Registration of Titles Act (all repealed). About 47 persons surrendered their titles back to the Government upon demand; the Anti-Corruption Commission instituted suits for the recovery of the rest of the houses. The current case was used as the lead file for the 48 suits that were instituted by the Anti-Corruption Commission. Evidence was produced by the Anti-Corruption Commission to show that the houses were illegally disposed off to private persons.
The Court, after analysing the evidence held that the process of disposal of the county owned houses was fundamentally flawed as the requisite consents from the Minister for Local Government at the time and the Commissioner for Lands were not obtained contrary to the Local Government Act. The Council at the time did not pass a resolution to dispose of Council property thus could not in law pass any interest to another person. The alleged sale of the public houses was also not done by way of public auction contrary to the Government Land Act (now repealed). The Court thus nullified the alleged sale and directed the Registrar of titles to cancel the title that was issued.
