The Environment and Land Court has ordered the recovery of a road reserve in Mombasa valued at approximately Ksh25 million after finding that it was illegally and fraudulently allocated for private use in 1994.

🇰🇪 Breaking It Down

The parcel, Mombasa Municipality/Block XIX/305, forms part of a road reserve along Machakos Road and provides an access route to the University of Nairobi's Mombasa Campus.

In a judgment delivered on September 24, 2026, Justice Yuvinalis Angima declared the lease issued over the property in 1994 null and void, finding that the allocation was made without following the legal procedures governing the closure and disposal of public roads.

The court also directed the Chief Land Registrar to cancel the lease entries and ordered the Director of Surveys to cancel and expunge the survey plan that created the parcel.

📌 What You Need to Know

The case was filed by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) after investigations into the allocation of land that had been reserved for public use.

EACC said its investigations established that the road reserve had been excised from Machakos Road and allocated to the late Ezekiel Luyali, who was a councillor at the then Municipal Council of Mombasa.

The commission also linked the allocation to David Kalume Randu, who was Town Clerk, and Ahmed Mwidhani, who was Mayor at the time, saying the process was unlawfully facilitated by the two officials.

The lease was issued on September 1, 1994, and registered the following day, with the purported 99-year allocation taking effect from June 1, 1994.

However, the court found that there was no evidence that the required legal process for closing the road had been followed, including publication of Gazette notices announcing the intention to close it.

The court further found that there was no valid and approved Part Development Plan, Council or committee resolution authorising the allocation, or approval by the Minister for Local Government for the 99-year alienation.

📰 Source: Kenyans.co.ke