Weston Hotel has suffered a setback in court after their application on the hearing of the land dispute with the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority.
The hotel had petitioned that the court had no jurisdiction to hear the case.
The petition had hinged on a categorical decision by the National Land Commission (NLC) three years ago that a solution could only be reached through mediation or the courts.
File image of Weston Hotel, Nairobi. |Photo| Courtesy|
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Justice Bernard Eboso ruled that the decision by NLC was not binding before proceeding to reject the application.
The Environment and Land Court ruled that the decision by NLC was not binding because its mandate to review grants and dispositions had expired.
Justice Eboso noted that NLC had conceded to losing its mandate to revoke title deeds under section 14 of the NLC act. Therefore the commission could only offer insight to bodies tasked to resolve the dispute.
The court acknowledged that it was still struggling with establishing whether section 6 of the NLC act granted the commission powers to prepare and present a report of any kind following the expiry of its review mandate.
"I have examined the impugned report to understand the legal framework under which it was made. It does emerge from the report itself that the commission was aware that its mandate under section 14 of the NLC Act had lapsed," Justice Eboso stated.
He reiterated that NLC itself had been categorical on the settlement of the land dispute through mediation or the courts.
"Therefore the commission did not render any binding decision under section 14 of the Act because its mandate had expired," Justice Eboso determined.
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