BY NT CORRESPONDENT.
The High Court has rejected an application by Muthithi Investment Company limited and Marble Arch Hotel to fence part of a perimeter wall demolished by the Nairobi County Government.
They county government through lawyer Harisson Kinyanjui opposed the application saying court should not allow the hotel to fence public land, and the matter was before court. The county has maintained that the disputed land is a parking lot.
Marble Arc Hotel has been using the land as a parking for its guests. The wall was demolished in December by the county government but the hotel argues that they are the genuine registered owners of the disputed land.
Documents filed in court show that the land was initially a public toilet and owned by the Nairobi County Fire Station.
In his affidavit, the owner of the said hotel, businessman Mike Maina said the demolition of the wall by the county had affected his business since guests no longer enjoy privacy and security as before.
In 2018, the county embarked on a campaign to reclaim grabbed parking bays within the CBD and has since then repossessed over 200 parking slots.
Governor Mike Sonko put on notice to all land grabbers in the city warning that buildings on grabbed public land will also be demolished.
He added that there is no room for land grabbers in Nairobi and his administration will not relent on its quest to reclaim grabbed land in his County as promised during his campaign.
In another dispute, Maina stormed a 20 acre piece of land in Kayole, Nairobi with bulldozers after he failed to force Nairobi Water Company to remove all piping and sewer lines from the property.
