A Nairobi court has ordered for the eviction of Visa Oshwal Primary School in Westlands from a land claimed to be owned by Shree Visa Oshwal Community Nairobi Registered Trustees.
The land is said to have been granted to three trustees, Bharmal Rajshi, Vershi Mepa Shah and Keshvlal Fulchand Shah in 1954.
In court papers seen by The Kenya Times, the trustees noted that due to lack of response from their letter dated December 18, 2023, they would proceed with the enforcement of court orders, issuing a deadline to the permanent secretary ministry of education.
“We write further to our previous correspondence resting with our letter dated 18th December 2023. We regret to note that we have not received a response to any of your letters.
“This is to therefore notify you that we have firm instructions to proceed with enforcement action, without further reference to yourselves, should we fail to hear back from you within the next 7 day,” the court papers dated February 6, 2024 read in part.
Court’s Ruling on Oshwal Land
The court ruled that the suit’s property L.A.R. 209/5996 is a private land.
“Nothing in the grant specified that the school to be erected on the suit property would or ought to be a public school and whether the school erected thereon was run as private or public was immaterial,” notes the court papers.
It added that the categorization of the school by the Ministry of education as ‘public’ in the year 1997 was unilateral and without reference to the Defendant.
According to the court, the Commissioner of Lands 6 months’ Notice of revocation of the Defendant’s grant was erroneous to the extent that it was based on the purported conversion of the school from public to private.
Earlier in court, the School Principal asserted that the Plaintiff’s claim on ownership was not limited to the plea that the public school stands on the subject land but also on the plea that government has never at any one time alienated the suit property by putting the Defendant in possession; hence the suit land is essentially public property.
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Senator Edwin Sifuna Plea to the Shree Oshwal Community
Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna expressing concern on the issue called on the community to abandon the push to evict the school noting that more than 2,500 students would be affected by the move.
“On behalf of the 2500 plus students of Visa Oshwal Primary School in Westlands and their parents I ask the Shree Oshwal Community in Nairobi to abandon this push,” Sifuna stated.
The senator further raised questions on the fate of the leaners after the court order questioning why the ministry of education is silent on the matter.
“Where do you expect all these children to go? And why can’t the ministry of education quickly regularize the ownership of this land? How can a school that has been run as a public institution since before I was born now be grabbed?” he posed.
In June 2021, former LSK president Nelson Havi vowed to defend the school from land grabbers noting that he would lead a legal team in an appeal before the supreme court.
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“I will lead the school’s legal team in the appeal now before the Supreme Court to assert the public status of the school as determined by Lenaola J and reverse an adverse judgment by the Court of Appeal. The Community should consider maintaining the public status of school.” Nelson Havi stated in 2021.
The Visa Oshwal mixed Primary School is an ordinary public educational institute in Highridge, Westlands, Kenya
