ISAACK BEN MULWA V. JONATHAN MUTUNGA MWEKE

JUDGMENT OF THE COURT

The chequered history of this dispute dates back to 1985 when the respondent’s father sued the appellant’s mother before the panel of elders in Land Case No. LND/KAL/92 of 1985 to determine the ownership of the disputed parcel of land and its boundary vis á vis that of the respondent. According to the respondent’s father, the appellant’s father migrated from his ancestral land in Mukana, Mariakani in the 1930s to Mtandikeni village in an adjudication area where the respondent’s father allowed him to settle on the disputed land. The respondent’s father’s claim before the panel of elders was that, despite the status of the appellant’s mother on the land, as a licensee she was in the process of selling it to third parties. The panel found in favour of the appellant’s mother and gave an award to the effect that having been in occupation of a specific portion of the land where she had settled for a long period of time and planted permanent trees and having also confirm…