The Ethics and Anti- Corruption Commission will now seize the residential properties grabbed from Woodely Estate in Nairobi.
This is after the Court of Appeal on Friday declared that the process used by various private individuals to acquire over 100 residential houses in the Estate was fraudulent, illegal, null and void.
The Estate, comprising prime residential houses standing on about one acre each, has an estimated market value of Sh1 billion.
The Court of Appeal made the landmark decision while upholding the judgement of the Environment and Land Court in multiple recovery suits filed by EACC against private developers.
Justices Francis Tuiyott, Jessie Lesiit and Ngenye-Macharia said the developer had not shown any reason why the High Court judgment should be set aside.
"The result of this appeal is that the appellant failed to establish that he acquired a valid title to the suit property; or that the process of obtaining it was regular and lawful and that he is deserving of the orders sought in this appeal," the judges said.
The appeal case was filed by one Paul Moses Ng'ethe. Fifty two other recovery suits involving multiple properties have been pending before the lower court, awaiting Friday's decision of the Court of Appeal.
The decision has now found that the process used to acquire the properties was flawed and legally untenable.
The recovery suits were first filed in the High Court on October 6, 2006 by the defunct Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission (KACC), predecessor of the current EACC, and subsequently transferred to the Environment and Land Court.
In its Judgement in the lead file, the Environment and Land Court ruled in favour of EACC and issued orders declaring the title held by P Ng’ethe invalid, null, and void for all intents and purposes for having been acquired fraudulently and illegally.
ELC Judge Samson Okong’o further issued orders directing the Registrar of Lands to cancel and expunge from the Nairobi Land Registry all the illegal entries relating to the property.
He also issued a permanent injunction restraining the appellant, whether by himself, his servants or agents, from dealing with the grabbed property otherwise than by way of surrender to the Government.
Dissatisfied with the Court's decision, Ng'ethe filed an appeal before the Court of Appeal, where he has suffered a blow.
Following the Court of Appeal's decision, all other suits pending before the Environment and Land Court will be finalised.
