Court cancels PCEA guild's title to 2.7-acre Kikuyu school playground
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The Environment and Land Court at Thika has cancelled a title held by the PCEA Ruguthi Women's Guild over 2.7 acres in Kikuyu, Kiambu County, ruling that the parcel was public land reserved as a playground for three primary schools.
The Environment and Land Court at Thika has cancelled the title held by the Presbyterian Church of East Africa (PCEA) Ruguthi Women's Guild over a 2.7-acre parcel reserved for three public primary schools in Kikuyu, Kiambu County.
In a judgment delivered virtually on October 5, 2026 and reported on October 26, Lady Justice Mogeni Jacqueline declared that parcel KARAI/KARAI/350 was public land set aside as a playground for Kanyiha, Lusigetti and Njumbi primary schools. The court ruled that the Guild's allocation and subsequent registration on December 6, 2001 were illegal, unprocedural and void, and ordered the Land Registrar and the National Land Commission to register the parcel as public school land held in trust for the three schools.
The court permanently barred the Guild, its officials, agents and anyone claiming through it from occupying, fencing, developing, transferring or interfering with the property, and awarded costs to the petitioners. The Law Society of Kenya and the schools' boards of management filed the petition, arguing that the land had been reserved for public educational use in 1957 and that the Guild's title threatened the rights of more than 1,300 pupils to education, play and recreation.
The Guild had insisted it lawfully acquired the land from the defunct County Council of Kiambu, saying it applied for the parcel on May 23, 2000, that the council's Works, Town Planning, Markets and Housing Committee approved the request on September 14, 2000, and that the full council adopted the minutes on October 12, 2000. It denied fraud or illegality and said it had used the property for about 20 years.
Its case weakened under cross-examination, however. The court heard that there was no letter of allotment, no payment of consideration, no payment of land rates and no change-of-user application, and that the parcel was designated as a children's playground. County records showed the land had initially been allocated to Mugo Karanja in 1957, and a government surveyor testified that maps in his custody identified the property as a school playing field.
In its ruling, the court held that registration could not protect a title obtained illegally over land reserved for public use, and that Section 80 of the Land Registration Act, 2012 empowered it to cancel such a title. The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission, which joined the case as an interested party, said its investigations established there was no letter of offer or acceptance, no evidence of payment of rent or rates and no proof of consideration paid to the council, adding that the judgment safeguards a facility used by more than 1,300 pupils.