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The High Court will start hearing a land dispute in which a Bungoma businesswoman has sued the family of the late Dagoretti Deputy County Commissioner Cornelius Wanyonyi Wamalwa.

Justice Enock Cherono Chirchir of the Environment and Land Court will start hearing the case on July 5, 2023.

Zeinab Zulekha Ahmed went to court in February last year accusing the late Wanyonyi’s family of attempting to grab a parcel of land valued at Sh40 million.

The land known, parcel No. Bungoma/Municipality/123 measuring 0.0929 hectares is situated in Bungoma town opposite Posta.

Through the law firm of Amani, Wekesa and associates, Zeinab has listed Wanyonyi’s widow Imelda Wamalwa, the Bungoma Land Registrar, Bungoma CEC member in charge of Lands, the County Government of Bungoma, the National Land Commission and Attorney General as respondents.

In court papers, Zeinab argues that she has been in possession of the disputed property since 2007 after she was issued with an allotment letter by the county government in respect of the plot following due process. “The plaintiff avers that upon being issued with certificate of lease, she went ahead and obtained necessary approval including from the county government and started developing the said land, and has invested in the land to the tune of Sh40,000,” the court papers state.

Zeinab argues that she has further been remitting to the county government all the due rates which are up to date as the leasehold land owner and even used the land documents to obtain a Sh3.5 million loan from First Community Bank.

Second loan

However, in early 2022 when she conducted a search in a process to use the property as collateral for a second loan, to her dismay, the lease title for the land had been changed to a third party; Cornelius Wanyonyi Wamalwa.

A follow-up established that the transfer happened in 2018.

The former Dagoretti DCC died in October 2018, three months after acquiring the allotment letter for the disputed land.

The Bungoma county government has denied any wrongdoing while the family of late Wanyonyi and NLC are yet to file their responses.