JUDGMENT OF THE COURT
As this Court observed in Mtana Lewa v. Kahindi Ngala Mwagandi, Civil Appeal No. 56 of 2014, adverse possession, as a global phenomenon has been criticised as an unjust means of land acquisition, where a wrong doer need only prove uninterrupted possession of land for a period of at least 12 years to be registered as its owner in place of the registered owner without paying for it. It was also observed that the doctrine has not fitted easily with the concept of indefeasibility of title that underlies the system of land registration.
Section 7 of the Limitation of Actions Act bars a registered land owner from bringing an action to recover land after the end of twelve years from the date on which the right of action accrued to him. Instead the law allows the adverse possessor to apply to the High Court to be registered as the proprietor. It is now firmly established that for a claim of adverse possession to succeed, the party claiming ownership by adverse possession m…