JUDGMENT OF THE COURT
This appeal raises the single issue of whether a magistrate who is called upon to adopt an award of the Land Disputes Tribunal under the repealed Land Disputes Act is so precluded from reviewing, amending or altering such an award that he must adopt as a judgment anything at all that purports to be an award.
The parties herein first came into contact with the courts over this matter when the respondent Joseph Thuku Kaburi, then acting in person, filed an application by chamber summons on 28th April 2010 before the Senior Principal Magistrate’s Court at Nanyuki seeking orders;
“1. THAT this Honourable Court be pleased to adopt the Tribunal award filed in this Court on 26th February 2007.”
It was supported by the respondent’s brief affidavit in which he averred that “on 26th February 2007 decision in this case was forwarded to this Honourable Court” and he asked that the same be adopted as the judgment of that Court. That Affidavit was neither dated nor sworn and, unsu…