Court of Appeal Issues Ruling on Ruaraka School Land Case That Involved Matiang’i

The Court of Appeal has upheld a judgment declaring that the land occupied by Drive-In Primary School and Ruaraka High School is public land.

The ruling marks another major development in the long-running Ruaraka land dispute, which previously drew national attention and was linked to the tenure of former Education Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i.

In a judgment delivered in Nairobi on Friday, July 3, 2026, a three-judge bench comprising Justices W. Karanja, F. Tuiyott, and W. Korir dismissed an appeal filed by Afrison Export Import Limited and Huelands Limited, ruling that it lacked merit and affirming an earlier decision of the Environment and Land Court (ELC).

According to the decision made by the appellate court, the land upon which the two public institutions are located was already under the ownership of the government, and hence, the land was public.

In effect, the judges held that the National Land Commission(NLC) did not have jurisdiction to commence proceedings for compulsory acquisition as well as compensation of the private firms, thus making the payment of Ksh 1.5 billion invalid.

Court Assure Schools Stand on Public Land

In their judgment, the appellate judges upheld the findings of the Environment and Land Court, agreeing that the compulsory acquisition process initiated by the National Land Commission was irregular because the land in question was already owned by the Government.

“On the question of the lawfulness of the part payment of the compensation, it follows from our finding that the schools are located on public land by virtue of the surrender, that the NLC had no legal basis upon which it could compulsorily acquire them. The doctrine of eminent domain only applies where the State initiates the taking of private property for public use,” the judges stated.

According to the court, the doctrine of eminent domain cannot be invoked where the Government already owns the property in dispute.

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The Court of Appeal further declared that the Ksh 1.5 billion paid to the appellant companies as partial compensation was unlawful and must be treated as an illegal payment.

“Consequently, the payment of Ksh 1.5 billion to the appellants was illegal, null and void. It was money paid under a mistake both in law and fact,” the judges ruled.

Appeal Rejected in Entirety

Afrison Export Import Limited and Huelands Limited had sought several orders from the appellate court.

They wanted the judges to declare their title to L.R. No. 7879/4 as an indefeasible private title, rule that the sections occupied by Drive-In Primary School and Ruaraka High School had never been surrendered to the Government, and declare that the Ksh 1.5 billion compensation did not amount to a loss of public funds.

The companies also sought orders directing the National Land Commission to pay the outstanding compensation balance of Ksh 1.769 billion.

However, the Court of Appeal rejected all the prayers and dismissed the appeal in its entirety, effectively upholding every key finding made earlier by the Environment and Land Court.

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Dispute Arises from Compensation Claim Filed in 2015

Court documents indicate that the dispute arose from a claim filed in 2015 where a director of the appellant companies sought compensation from the National Land Commission for about 13.5 acres of L.R. No. 7879/4 held by the two public schools.

It was found out that the companies got the land through an indenture which was registered in 1981.

But investigations by the National Land Commission have revealed that the investigation by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission and Parliament indicated that the land occupied by the two public schools had earlier been surrendered to the government.

This led to the conclusion that the land was a public land and therefore, could not be compensated from public funds.

Besides the appellants, other parties that were involved in the appeal were National Land Commission, Nairobi City County, Chief Land Registrar, Director of Surveys, Cabinet Secretaries for Lands and Education, Attorney General’s office and Patrick Kanyuira.

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The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) headquarters. PHOTO/ODPP