The Supreme Court has ruled in favour of an aggrieved land owner whose land was reallocated and then sold off after the expiry of the lease period, despite making an application for its renewal.
- •In a judgement dated April 11, 2025, the Supreme Court ruled that once the lease period of public land expires, the property automatically reverts to the government.
- •However, in a case between Harcharan Sehmi and 5 others, the apex court ruled that ownership of the leased land cannot be passed to another party without communication to the current owner when s/he has initiated an application for renewal.
- •The case revolves a town plot in Ngara area, Nairobi, which was reallocated to Rospatech Limited who later sold it at a cost of Ksh24million to Tarabana Company Limited.
“More often than not, public leases contain an option for renewal. However, such renewal must be activated by an application by the lessee to the government agency having authority to renew the lease. It follows therefore that where the lessee makes an application for renewal of his/her lease, his/her application would be considered either way and that, the applicant would be furnished with reasons should the application be declined,” states Supreme court Judges led by Justice Mohammed Ibrahim.
“It is the application for renewal that ignites the legitimate expectation, given the fact that it is addressed to an authority that has the competence to renew the lease,” notes Supreme Court.
In the case, the reallocation was done despite the owner applying for an extension three months before its expiry. According to the court’s reconstruction of events, the Commissioner wrote to both the Director of Physical Planning and the Director of Survey seeking information as to whether there was any objection to the application for extension of the lease.
“What is clear is that no communication was ever sent to the appellants indicating that an objection to their application had been registered in either of the two offices. It is therefore safe to assume that no such objection was ever registered against the appellants’ application,” the court added.
The bench ordered the Chief Land Registrar to amend the land register to reflect Sehmi as the proprietors of the land.
