Multimillion property case on 16 years later

What you need to know:

  • Mr Avtar, who spoke at the school, produced documents he said were sale agreement records, payments receipts and land transfer deeds for three pieces of land he signed in 1988 with Ms Wanjiru’s late husband Shadrack Muraya Mirobi.
  • At the centre of dispute is three acres of land valued at Sh3 million and a school worth Sh10 million.
  • But Ms Wanjiru insists she is the real owner of the properties. She claims she had employed Mr Avtar as her manager only for him to refuse to vacate.

A row over the ownership of a multimillion private school in Bahati, Nakuru County has continued to rage 16 years down the line.

An elderly woman who claims she was dispossessed of the school and land by a man she had employed as her manager, is said to have organised locals to storm the facility in her continued attempts to take over the property.

Mr Avtar Singh Chauhan, the proprietor of New Elimu High School, however, accuses 80-year-old Ruth Wanjiru Shadrack of trying to ‘spoil’ his business.

“She is accusing me of illegally taking over the properties yet the Court of Appeal ruled that they belong to me,” Mr Avtar said on Sunday.

On May 30 last year, judges Roselyn Nambuye, Fatuma Sichale and Sankale ole Kantai ruled in favour of Mr Avtar.

Mr Avtar, who spoke at the school, produced documents he said were sale agreement records, payments receipts and land transfer deeds for three pieces of land he signed in 1988 with Ms Wanjiru’s late husband Shadrack Muraya Mirobi.

“After a protracted court battle, a three-judge bench of the Court of Appeal finally saw the truth and gave me the disputed parcels of land and the school but Muraya’s widow has turned to the public court to destroy my business,” Mr Avtar said.

JUDGEMENT OVERRULED
At the centre of dispute is three acres of land valued at Sh3 million and a school worth Sh10 million.

Court records show Mr Avtar first moved to the High Court in Nakuru in 1998 seeking orders barring Ms Wanjiru and her agents from interfering with the property.

During the hearing, Mr Muraya would deny selling the land to Mr Avtra. On October 5, 2007, Lady Justice Martha Koome dismissed Mr Muraya and Mr Avtar’s claims and ruled both the land and school belonged to Ms Wanjiru.

Mr Avtar challenged Justice Koome’s ruling at the Court of Appeal saying she erred by failing to consider all the issues raised in the pleadings denying him a fair trial.

After going through the High Court records, Appellate judges found ‘grave’ mistakes in Justice Koome’s judgement and ordered a permanent injunction barring Ms Wanjiru and her agents from interfering with the three parcels of land and the school.

“We have considered the whole matter, the evidence before the judge and the misdirection, which we have set out and have reached a conclusion that the judgment was erroneous and we are entitled to interfere with it,” read the judgement by the judges.

HUGE LOSSES
But Ms Wanjiru insists she is the real owner of the properties. She claims she had employed Mr Avtar as her manager only for him to refuse to vacate. “I have taken him to court three times and won. He must give back the school,” she said.

She said she has been unable to repossess the school from the developer because police have failed to provide her with security as had been ordered in Justice Koome’s judgement in 2010.

“I have incurred huge losses because I have not been getting any proceeds from the school since 2008,” she said