Wakili Mark

Human right activist, Future Lawyer⚖️
Manifestation works best amidst disagreements

[ROBA & ASSOCIATES LLP @AssociatesRoba]

🚨🚨GROUNDBREAKIING FROM THE COA: YOUR TITLE DEED CAN'T BE CANCELLED WITHOUT YOU BEING HEARD

The Court of Appeal has delivered a landmark decision that will reshape how land disputes are litigated in Kenya. In Joseph Babu Kaangi & Another v Munket Pulei & Others (Civil Appeal No. E322 of 2023), a landowner successfully obtained a judgment in the Environment and Land Court declaring several subdivisions fraudulent and cancelling the resultant titles. The problem? Some of those parcels had long been sold to third parties who held their own title deeds, yet they were never joined to the case or given an opportunity to defend their interests. When those purchasers later discovered that their titles had effectively been wiped out by a judgment in proceedings they knew nothing about, they moved the Court seeking to be heard.

The Court of Appeal agreed with them. It held that once the court is aware that land has been transferred to third parties whose proprietary rights stand to be affected, those parties are necessary participants in the proceedings. A court may even direct their joinder on its own motion. Having found that the purchasers' constitutional right to be heard had been violated, the Court set aside not only the ruling refusing to join them, but also the entire judgment that had cancelled the titles. The dispute will now be heard afresh before a different judge with all affected proprietors participating.

The jurisprudential significance of this decision cannot be overstated. It reinforces that no matter how strong a claim of fraud or illegal acquisition may be, Kenyan courts will not permit proprietary rights to be extinguished through proceedings conducted in the absence of those whose titles are directly under attack. The right to be heard is not a procedural technicality; it is a constitutional safeguard capable of undoing an entire judgment. Going forward, litigants seeking cancellation of land titles must ensure that every person whose registered interest may be affected is brought before the court, or risk seeing years of litigation collapse on appeal.

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[Wakili Mark @Jmarkox_ous]

@xiaofen88377379 AUS

[FARAH OMAR 🇰🇪❤️ @OmarrFarah1]

The collapse of moral values in a society is an indication of its decline.