A gemstone mining company embroiled in a land dispute with a group of ranchers has appealed a decision by a magistrate's court stopping it from further mining pending determination of the suit.
Lilian Gems Company has filed an appeal at the Environment and Lands Court in Mombasa challenging the lower court’s jurisdiction to hear the dispute against Kasigau Ranching DA Company Limited.
Company CEO Lilian Mercy Mutua wants Justice Ann Omollo to set aside orders by Senior Principle Magistrate EG Nderitu in Voi and allow them to continue mining the gems.
Mrs Mutua also wants Nderitu to recuse himself from hearing the matter further because he lacks jurisdiction as set in the Mining Act.
The Kasigau Ranching DA Company Limited had filed a case seeking orders to have the gem mining company evicted from the land and stopped from further mining on the piece of land.
Preliminary objection
Last October 30, Nderitu declined to stay a preliminary objection raised by the company last August 24, and proceeded to stop mining of the stones from the suit property.
However, Mutua, through her lawyer Kasigau Ranching Limited and their Chairman Alphonse Mwaidoma, had given her the consent to mine on the ranch in a letter dated October 17, 2012.
Mutua said the decision by Nderitu to stop the mining was unfair, as she was not given any chance to respond to the allegations made by the ranchers.
“The honorable court has already forced an opinion to the effect that the suit property in issue herein belongs to the ranchers (plaintiff) and that the gem company (defendant) is a trespasser before presenting an iota of evidence,” said Mutua.
She said the lower court simply misapplied the principles of humanity and commerce by barring her employees from entering the site where she had been in occupation and operation since 2011 and making a living that provided for more than 100 families employed at the site.
“I have been in an open, peaceful, quiet, lawful, continuous and uninterrupted possession, occupation and derivative use of the suit property since 2011 where I have been conducting extensive prospecting, exploration and mining, and I am fully sanctioned by all relevant authorities,” said Mutua.
