Blow to Uhuru Kenyatta’s cousin Kungu Muigai over 443-acre land court case
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Court declines to reopen 443-acre land court case belonging to Former President Uhuru Kenyatta's cousin Kungu Muigai
Court declines to reopen 443-acre land court case belonging to Former President Uhuru Kenyatta’s cousin Kungu Muigai.
The Appellate Court has denied a request to reopen the case, bringing an end to the 32-year dispute involving Benjoh Amalgamated, Muigai’s company, and the Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB).
The long-running legal battle over the auctioning of a 443-acre coffee farm in Thika, belonging to President Uhuru Kenyatta’s cousin, Kungu Muigai, has come to a close.
The five-judge bench ruled that it is improper to seek a review of a judgment solely for the purpose of rehearing and obtaining a fresh decision.
Justice Asike Makhandia, delivering the unanimous decision, expressed incredulity at Benjoh Amalgamated’s attempt to revisit a consent decree more than three decades later.
“The applicant now wants this Court to believe that it took all those years to discover that it never instructed Mr (Gideon Kaumbuthi) Meenye to represent it. The applicant now wants us to believe all this time it never knew its lawyer on record,” Justices Makhandia, Kathurima M’Inoti, Sankale ole Kantai, Francis Tuiyott, and John Mativo said in a ruling.
Benjoh Amalgamated had sought a review of a previous judgment, asserting that new information had come to light since the court’s decision on December 15, 2017.
However, KCB’s lawyer, Philip Nyachoti, argued against reopening the case, citing the multiple court orders already in effect based on numerous rulings and judgments by various judges over the years.
Nyachoti highlighted that Mr. Meenye had been available since 1992 and that the issue of the consent execution had been addressed in a judgment as far back as March 1998.
He also noted that Meenye’s affidavit was not part of the evidence presented in the original trial, rendering it inadmissible at the appellate stage.
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The judges emphasized the long-standing nature of the consent in question, which had been in effect for 26 years when the appeal was filed on February 16, 2018, and 32 years by the time of their decision.
They dismissed Benjoh’s assertion that Meenye appeared out of nowhere to represent the company without instructions as “the hallmark of dishonesty.”
Benjoh’s lawyer, Kyalo Mbobu, contended that Meenye, who allegedly represented the firm in 1992, did not possess a valid practicing certificate at the time the consent was recorded and adopted by the High Court on May 4, 1992, rendering the consent order and proceedings illegal.
However, this argument did not sway the appellate court.
The Appellate Court’s decision effectively upholds the auctioning of the Thika coffee farm, concluding a protracted legal saga that has spanned more than three decades.
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