Court of Appeal orders NLC to submit in Lamu wind power dispute appeal

The Court of Appeal has ordered the National Land Commission NLC and a private investor Kenwind to make final submissions in a case in which a second firm Cordisons International is seeking to overturn a High Court judgment that barred it from investing in wind power production in Lamu.

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

Cordisons is appealing the May 12 judgement that denied it land rights after finding the American consortium applied for land lease approvals from the Lamu county government instead of the NLC. In the judgment Justice J. O Olola also ruled that under the 2010 constitution and legislation only the land commission has the legal power to lease public land to private developers.

Court ordered them to submit the documents by November 14, 2019 for readiness for appeal hearing.

Lawyer William Mogaka who represents Kenwind company told the Court of Appeal that  he wanted the appeal hearing to be adjourned  to give him time to file  his submission in which it is opposing an appeal by Cordison International company.

Cordison International Company’s lawyer Francis Wasuna raised concern over the failure of the defence to serve him with their submission and yet he was ready for the hearing of the appeal.

Cordison International Company initially went to the high court on May 22 2017 for judicial review in which it wanted orders to quash the decision of National Land Commission which had issued letter of allotment to Kenwind on February 7 2017.

The company also wanted an order compelling National Land Commission Chairman to issue it with letter of allotment in respect of plot No LCG/ ADM/3/3/77/203/18 instead of Kenwind.

The plot in question is about 11,100 acres at Kiongwe in Lamu county where Cordison International Company had got a green from the county government to put up wind power plant to produce electricity from the wind.

Cordison International Company Chief Executive Crispin Kodi in his affidavit in the High court accused National Land Commission of being biased in their decision to allocate the piece of land to Kenwind.

He insisted that his company was the first to apply for the allocation and even got approval from Lamu county government to be allocated the land and instead National Land commission went ahead and allocated it to Kenwind.

National Land Commission opposed the application arguing it had followed the law in allocating the land to Kenwind.

Lamu County Government supported Cordison International Company over its complaint that National Land Commission did a mistake in allocating Kenwind the plot.

However upon hearing the parties Justice J.O.Olola dismissed the application of Cordison International Company on grounds that National Land Commission followed the law.

The judge found that Kenwind Company also applied to be allocated and its application was approved by the Lamu County Government Assembly on July 22 2015 after deliberation.

The contention of Cordison International  that the subsequent allocation was irregular and unlawful for encroaching on land already issued and allocated  to it  does not lie in law, National Land Commission had no powers to allocate public land to Cordison International company in the manner it did” said Justice Olola.

But Cordison International angered by this decision rushed to the Court of Appeal seeking orders to overturn the judgment of the High court and declare the allotment to Kenwind an illegality.

However when the matter came for an appeal Kenwind applied to be given time to prepare it submission in response to claims of Cordison that  National Land Commission illegally allocated it the land it also want to put up a wind power project to produce electricity in  the off shore of Lamu.