National Land Commission in project land row

The Court of Appeal has ordered the land commission and a private investor to make final submissions in a case involving a wind power project in Lamu County.

National Land Commission (NLC) and Kenwind are involved in a case in which a second firm, Cordisons International, is seeking to overturn a High Court judgement that barred it from investing in wind power production in Lamu.

On Tuesday, Justices Alnashir Visram, Wanjiru Karanja and Martha Koome ordered NLC and Kenwind, which was awarded rights to invest in wind power in Lamu, to serve Cordisons International, an American consortium, before the next hearing.

Cordisons has appealed the May 12 judgement that denied it land rights because it applied for land lease approvals from the county government instead of the NLC.

In the judgement, Justice JO Olola also found that under the Constitution, only NLC had the legal power to lease public land to private developers.