Legal battle over city parking lot concluded with Sh107m payout

Intercontinental Hotel and Nyayo House. [Wilberforce Okwiri, Standard] A small stretch of land between Nyayo House and the Intercontinental Hotel in Nairobi, measuring approximately 0.2 acres or 13 metres, has become the subject of an ongoing legal and financial battle. This area, which has a parking lot, has proven too expensive for both taxpayers and private entities to address, with claims that it was once part of an 80-metre road. Nairobi County, the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC), its predecessor, the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission (KACC), along with Kenya Properties Limited, the owners of the Intercontinental Hotel, have all faced substantial financial penalties for attempting to challenge the ownership of this land, which belongs to Willesden Investments Limited. The county admitted it did not own the land and agreed to pay Sh85 million in compensation. Meanwhile, Kenya Properties Limited was fined Sh70 million for trespassing, although this amount was later reduced to Sh22 million following an appeal. Environment and Lands Court Judge Oscar Angote has now ruled that the reduced amount must be paid by Kenya Properties Limited. Although the judge acknowledged that the Commissioner of Lands had issued Willesden with a title indicating that the road was part of their property, he ordered a new survey to be conducted to separate the two areas, with a new title to be issued. The judge explained that the initial allottee, Centre Park Limited, had requested the Commissioner of Lands to issue a title to Willesden, a process that was regularised with a payment of Sh4 million. Justice Angote dismissed the cases brought by KACC and Kenya Properties Limited. "The Commissioner of Lands having acceded to the request by the allottee, I do not find any illegality on the part of the Commissioner of Lands in the processing of the title in the name of the first defendant, safe for the fact that the title was erroneously issued in respect of a road, and not the land that was allocated to the initial allottee, Center Park Limited," he said. Public road KACC had argued that the parcel of land, identified as LR. 209/12748, I.R. 66986, had once been a section of Kaunda Street, a public road running between Nyayo House and the Intercontinental Hotel. They contended that the road, originally 80 feet wide (approximately 24.4 metres), had been reduced to 37.76 feet (11.51 metres) in a 1995 survey, allegedly to create the contested property of 0.100 hectares. KACC claimed that the reduction was a deliberate attempt to illegally create the contested parcel, which was later registered as LR No. 209/12748 I.R. 66986. KACC further argued that the land was unlawfully allocated to Centre Park Limited on January 13, 1994, as an unsurveyed commercial plot. Investigations revealed that Centre Park Limited did not exist in the company register. The court heard that after Centre Park, a grant was issued to Willesden Investments Limited. The property was allegedly allocated for the development of a multi-storey car park, though the Director of Physical Planning and the Commissioner of Lands had never approved such a development plan. Willesden Investments, represented by Ben Muli, Jatin Patel, Hitesh Rathood, and Martha Kiwele, filed a joint response, claiming that the original 80-foot width of the road had not been altered and that the contested stretch of land was part of the larger Nyayo House complex. They argued that before Willesden took over from Kenya Properties Limited in 1998, the land had been used as a parking lot with the full knowledge of the Nairobi City Council. Between 2004 and 2012, the council continued to operate the parking lot, and between 2018 and 2020, both Willesden and the council managed the space until the council ceased operations. The defence maintained that the Nairobi County Government had never sought to revert the land to a road reserve and had never demonstrated that the area had ever been designated as such. They also claimed that the land had been allocated to Centre Park Limited in 1994 for Sh3.2 million with an annual rent of Sh640,000, and that Willesden had acquired it a year later, requesting the Commissioner of Lands to issue a title. Commercial plot Justice Angote was informed that a title had been issued after the Commissioner of Lands paid Sh4 million. The defence maintained that the allotment letter referred to the land as an unsurveyed commercial plot, not a road reserve. Gachanja, who had been involved in the allocation process, denied any illegal survey in 1995, asserting that the alienation and allotment of the land had followed proper procedures, being processed, vetted, and approved by various officers within the Ministry of Lands. He described the case as discriminatory and vexatious, noting that it had been filed 10 years after he left office. Kenya Hotel Properties Limited, which owns the Intercontinental Hotel, filed a separate case, arguing that Kimwele's grant to Muli was illegal, as she did not have the authority to convert public land for private use. The hotel also argued that Centre Park Limited was non-existent and that the land was a public road. It claimed that Willesden owed it Sh70 million for trespassing and loss of business, a judgment that had not accounted for the land's public status. The hotel supported KACC's argument that the transfer of the land was illegal and further claimed that the Kenya Revenue Authority had found Willesden to be non-compliant with tax regulations. Willesden, however, countered that Nairobi County had been ordered to pay it Sh85 million for the land, but had failed to comply. It also argued that the Court of Appeal had set aside an order requiring it to pay the KRA Sh37 million. Willesden maintained that both the hotel and KACC had deliberately excluded Centre Park Limited from the case. Nairobi County supported Willesden's position, arguing that the company had not encroached on the road reserve and that the land had been allocated for the construction of a multi-storey car park. The court concluded that the road reserve should measure 24 metres, leaving the 13-metre stretch in question, which had been planned and allocated by the Director of Physical Planning as a parking area.

Legal battle over city parking lot concluded with Sh107m payout

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Legal battle over city parking lot concluded with Sh107m payout

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