A Nairobi Court of Appeal has maintained that the payment and compensation to Afrison Export-Import Limited and Huelands Limited for Ruaraka High School and Drive-In Primary School were illegal.

In a detailed judgement delivered by Judge Wanjiru Karanja, Francis Tuiyott and Weldon Korir on July 3, 2026, the court found that the schools are located on public land by virtue of the surrender and that the National Lands Commission (NLC) had no legal basis upon which it could compulsorily acquire them.

Further, the three-judge bench avers that the doctrine of eminent domain only applies where the state initiates the taking of private property for public use.

“The State cannot acquire what it already owns. The purported acquisition was, therefore, without legal foundation,” the bench ruled.

“Consequently, the payment of Ksh1.5 billion to the appellants was illegal, null, and void. It was money paid under a mistake both in law and fact,” the Judges added.

The bench upheld the Environment and Land Court (ELC) advisory on June 19, 2019, in which the ELC held that although the companies are still the registered proprietors of L.R. No. 7879/4, the title is held subject to the government’s interest in the plots designated for public amenities.

In addition, they also upheld the ELC judges’ declaration that the part payment of Ksh1.5 billion as compensation to the appellants for the parcels of land where the two schools sit constituted a loss of public funds.

Aggrieved by the ELC advisory, the two companies, on July 5, 2019, filed an appeal arguing that the learned judges erred in law and fact in finding their application for subdivision of Land Registration Number 7879/4 of September 1982 was approved.

According to court documents, in the year 2015, Mr Francis Mburu, a director of the appellants, made a claim of historical injustice to NLC, seeking compensation in respect of 13.5364 acres being a portion of the land parcels upon which the schools stood and which were compulsorily acquired by the government way back in 1984.

Upon investigation, NLC established that the appellants were indeed the owners of the said land through an indenture between them and Joreth Limited registered in 1981; that Drive-In Estate Developers Limited had, on behalf of the appellants, made an application for subdivision of the parcel of land and were granted a conditional approval by the then Director of Planning, Nairobi City Council.

Further, it was also established that the Drive-In Estate Developers Limited was, however, not agreeable with the terms of the conditional approval, and on April 5, 1984, the then director of Drive-In Estate Developers Limited, Mr Mburu, wrote a letter to the director of city planning withdrawing and cancelling the entire application for subdivision.

According to the NLC, on April 18, 1984, the then Commissioner of Lands, A. F. Mwangi, wrote a letter to the manager of Drive-In Estate Developers Limited expressing the government’s intention to acquire the said land.

In 1984, Ruaraka High School was established, while Drive-In Primary School was put up in 1987. The NLC confirmed that the two schools are established on 13.7701 acres and not 13.5364 acres of the suit land.