The National Assembly has convinced the High Court in Voi to strike out the inclusion of the Implementation Committee as a respondent to a land related petition. 

Environment and Land Court Judge Justice Edward Wabwoto struck out the listing of the  Committee as the seventh respondent in a Petition filed by Mwasima Mbuwa Welfare Association.  

The National Assembly argued that Parliamentary Committees are immune from legal proceedings, and that inclusion of the said Committee as a respondent to the petition was a violation of the law. 

Specifically, the National Assembly argued that the said action was in breach of Article 117 of the Constitution and section 12 of the Parliamentary Powers and Privileges Act 2017.

 “The National Assembly is a Constitutional entity capable of being sued on its own capacity, hence the Petition questioning the actions or omissions of the National Assembly or its committees can only be instituted against the National Assembly,” argued the National Assembly.

 In its affidavit, the National Assembly further stated: “There is no justifiable cause of action against the seventh respondent who has been erroneously dragged into these proceedings.”

 In his verdict, Justice Wabwoto, however, granted leave to the Petitioner, to amend his Petition to substitute the Committee with the National Assembly as the seventh respondent. 

 The said Petition relates to a longstanding land-dispute between the Petitioner and several other entities including the Teita Sisal Estate Ltd, the County Government of Taita Taveta, as well as the Ministry of Water, Sanitation and Irrigation among others.

 Court papers indicate that the National Assembly was drawn into the pre-existing land dispute on December 2, 2014, when – according to the Petitioner – the 11th Parliament’s Departmental Committee on Lands directed key stakeholders in the Ministry of Lands to carry out a survey on the contentious property.

 The said survey was to ascertain the boundaries of the suit property, as per the records from the1992 survey of Kenya.

 The Petitioner averts that the teams from the National Government and the County Government of Taita Taveta differed on the outcome, resulting in two conflicting reports. 

According to the Petitioner upon submission of both reports to the Ministry, the then Cabinet Secretary for Lands, Prof. Jacob Kaimenyi ratified the Petitioner’s report by appending a signature on it and forwarding the same to Parliament.  

Subsequently, argues the Petitioner, the report was debated and endorsed by the 11th Parliament for implementation.

 The Petitioner accuses the other parties laying claim to the suit property of defying the said Parliamentary directive to vacate the contentious land parcel. 

The Petition will be heard on Thursday, July 18, 2024.