Supreme Court saves former Limuru MP Nyanja from Karen eviction

The Supreme Court has issued urgent orders suspending the enforcement of a ruling that would have seen former Limuru Member of Parliament George Njau Mbugua Nyanja and his wife evicted from their Karen property.

In a ruling rendered by Chief Justice Martha Koome, Deputy Chief Justice Philomena Mwilu, and Justices Smokin Wanjala, Isaac Lenaola, and William Ouko issued orders suspending the enforcement of a Court of Appeal judgment that had gone against the Nyanja family over the disputed property known as L.R. No. 7583/1, Karen Estate, Nairobi.

"Pending the hearing and determination of this application inter partes, an order does issue staying further proceedings with respect to, or execution of, the judgment and decree of the Court of Appeal given on January 30 2026, in Civil Appeal No. 224 of 2020 (consolidated with E166 & 174 of 2021)," CJ Koome-led bench ordered.

 "For avoidance of doubt, an injunction does issue barring the Respondents, their servants, and agents from possessing, occupying, or dealing in any way with the suit property known as L.R. No. 7583/1, Karen Estate, Nairobi."

The applicants, Nyanja, his wife, Mrs Enid Nyanja, and their company, Nyanja Holdings Limited, through lawyer Cecil Miller, sought the stay orders at the Supreme Court after the Court of Appeal delivered a judgment against them on January 30, 2026, culminating from a bitter legal battle stretching back more than three decades over a disputed mortgage and property sale.

The origins of the dispute trace back to the Civil case filed in 1991, in which City Finance Limited, a lender and Redmars Holdings Limited had been in a prolonged legal contest with the Nyanja family and their company, Nyanja Holdings Limited, over the Karen property.

The case centres on a mortgage arrangement that eventually led City Finance Limited to sell the Karen property by private treaty, a sale the Nyanja family argued was unlawful.

According to court documents, City Finance Limited maintained that the Nyanja family owed a substantial debt and that following their failure to settle it, the lender exercised its statutory power of sale and disposed of the property.

The Nyanja family, however, consistently contested the legality of that sale, arguing among other things that the property had not been properly advertised, that the sale price was below market value, and that the lender had acted unlawfully in the process of realising its security.

The dispute was so prolonged and contentious that, according to documents filed in court, the Nyanja family obtained and were dismissed from no fewer than six injunctions between 1991 and 2006, with those applications being dismissed by Justices Kuloba, Onyango Otieno, Kasango, Khaminwa, Ochieng, and Nambuye at various stages of the litigation.

When the matter was finally heard and determined on its merits, High Court Judge Mary Kasango delivered her judgment on May 5, 2020, ruling against City Finance Limited and in favour of the Nyanja family.

The judgment effectively reversed the private treaty sale and protected the Karen property.

City Finance Limited, aggrieved by that decision, filed a Memorandum of Appeal at the Court of Appeal, accusing the High Court judge of a litany of errors. 

The appellant argued, among other grounds, that the judge had introduced extraneous matters not pleaded by any party, was biased in favour of the Nyanja family, had made findings of fraud without a proper basis, and had wrongly set aside the private treaty sale despite various admissions of debt by the Nyanja couple.

City Finance further argued the judge had failed to consider a prior 2008 ruling by Justice Roselyn Nambuye, as she then was, which had found that the equity of redemption had already been extinguished and that the remedy lay only in damages.

The Court of Appeal sided with City Finance Limited and Redmars Holdings Limited, delivering a judgment on January 30, 2026, that reversed the High Court decision, effectively restoring the legal basis for the eviction of the Nyanja family from the Karen home.

CJ Koome also directed that the motion be placed before the Deputy Registrar for case management.