Elidah Njambi Maina v Stephen Muriithi & another [2020] KEELC 501 (KLR)

The court examined Sections 25-26 of the Environment and Land Court Act and Section 9 of the Magistrates' Court Act, which confer on appointed magistrates power to handle civil matters involving occupation and title to land within pecuniary limits. Nothing in the Constitution or statute excludes declaratory suits on land title. The applicant provided no contrary authority from the High Court or superior courts. The claim that a magistrate cannot review or sit in appeal over another magistrate's orders did not make the suit unfit for the Magistrate's Court.

Section 18 permits the High Court, on application or of its own motion, to withdraw a suit pending in a subordinate court and try, transfer or re-transfer it. The court considered the applicant's assertion that the suit was declaratory in nature and beyond the magistrate's jurisdiction, but found the statutory framework clothed the Magistrate's Court with jurisdiction. No authority was cited showing magistrates lack jurisdiction over such disputes, so the discretion to transfer was not triggered and the application failed.