A court has cancelled a title deed obtained by a man who filed a succession cause against a living landowner.
The Environment and Land Court in Malindi ruled that Nyiro Pande Ngala illegally acquired Title No Kilifi/Ngerenyi/132 by filing a succession case in 1980 while the original allottee, Kalume Bavanda, was still alive.
Ngala successfully managed to have himself appointed as the sole heir to Bavanda's valuable settlement scheme land. However, Bavanda was very much alive at the time.
When Bavanda discovered the audacious theft of his property, he launched a counter-offensive at the High Court in Mombasa in 1982.
Although a judge nullified the fraudulent succession proceedings at the time, Ngala still managed to bypass the system and process a fresh title deed in his own name in 2006.
The battle was revived by the rightful owner's daughter, Nyevu Kalume, who sued as the administrator of her father's estate after he eventually passed away in 2020.
Kalume testified that she discovered the irregularity while trying to clear the land’s debts with the Settlement Fund Trustee.
“The first and second defendants fraudulently created a forged title deed for the suit property in favour of the first defendant,” she told the court, adding that her father’s ownership records had been destroyed.
Ngala, testifying as the first defendant, initially claimed he did not know Bavanda. However, Under cross-examination, he admitted that the entire suit land, was owned by the deceased.
He then alleged that Bavanda’s widow – whose name he could not recall – sold him the land for Sh4,782 in 1977. He acknowledged the 1982 High Court decision that revoked the grant issued to him but said he had not appealed.
Justice Evans Makori, in his judgment delivered on May 18, found that Ngala’s conduct amounted to serious fraud.
“The first defendant’s actions in acquiring Title Number: Kilifi/Ngerenyi/132 and the associated title deed were, among other things, fraudulent, illegal, unlawful and wrongful,” the judge ruled.
He quoted the 1982 ruling, which stated that “the proceedings in Malindi District Magistrate Succession Cause 36 of 1980 were fraudulent, void and a nullity.”
The court issued a permanent injunction restraining Ngala and the Kilifi District Land Registrar from selling, transferring or interfering with the property.
It declared the estate Bavanda’s, as the sole legal proprietor and ordered the registrar to cancel Ngala’s title deed and issue a fresh one in the name of the deceased. The judge dismissed Ngala’s counterclaim as meritless.
Two other defendants were also addressed.
Thomas Joseph Baya who claimed to have bought three acres from a third party, was told any claims to the land must be pursued through a proper succession cause now that the property has been restored to Bavanda’s estate.
“The bedrock or root of the title held by the first defendant has been challenged as a bad title,” the judge said, noting that previous litigation involving Baya did not bind Bavanda’s estate. Costs were awarded to the plaintiff.
