RULING
The applicant, Emmanuel Ngade Nyoka, filed a suit against the respondent, Kidheka Mutisya Ngata, in the Senior Resident Magistrate’s Court, Kilifi, in 1999 seeking inter alia an order for specific performance of a contract between the parties for sale of a plot of land known as Plot No. Kilifi/Kijipwa/173 (the suit property). On 5th February 2009, the trial court entered judgment for the applicant and ordered specific performance of the contract. The respondent was aggrieved by that decree and lodged Civil Appeal No. 5 of 2009, which was ultimately heard by Angote, J. in the Environment and Land Court, Malindi.
On 19th December 2013 the learned judge allowed the appeal after finding that the suit property was agricultural land and that the relevant Land Control Board had not sanctioned the transaction as required by the Land Control Act. Consequently the learned judge held that the transaction was null and void and therefore an order of specific performance could not issue.
The ap…