Republic v Cabinet Secretary of Lands, Housing, Physical Planning & Settlement & 4 others [2018] KEELC 879 (KLR)

The court adopted the Municipal Council of Mombasa and Yaya Towers authorities as apt expositions. The applicant's complaints about the minister's factual findings (ownership of parcel 1864, acreage, bias in distribution of acres) were merits complaints properly ventilated by a substantive suit or proper appeal, not judicial review. The court also noted the applicant failed to lay the impugned proceedings before it, making it impossible to assess procedural integrity.

The DLASO decision was made in June/August 2016 but the Adjudication Records were released on 26th May 2017 and the appeal filed four days later. The court held that in such circumstances the 60-day period should run from the release of the Record, but since the deputy county commissioner had made a factual finding, the High Court in judicial review could not substitute its own decision on that fact.

The court observed that the ex-parte applicant did not provide the impugned proceedings in the appeal before the minister. Without the proceedings the court could not scrutinise the alleged denial of a fair hearing, lack of reasons or bias, and the allegations were unproven. The 1st interested party's contention that the application was fatally defective for lack of the proceedings was accepted.