Chimwaga & 4 others v Land Registrar Kwale County & another; National Land Commission & 2 others (Interested Parties) (Environment and Land Judicial Review Case E003 of 2024) [2025] KEELC 5838 (KLR)

The court applied the stay test analogous to Order 42 Rule 6: a prima facie arguable case and sufficient cause in the interest of justice. Comparing the pleadings, the judicial review challenges the Land Registrar's cancellation of the Applicants' leases via Gazette Notice No 10517 on process grounds (ultra vires, procedural unfairness), while the petition seeks declaratory and injunctive relief on ownership of parcel 1352 only. The suits thus raise substantially different issues between them, and the JR court is confined to process, so parallel litigation would not produce embarrassing conflicting decisions.

Relying on Black's Law Dictionary and the Marigat Group Ranch and Leboo authorities, the court held that an interested party exists only to assist the court and must not disguise substantive claims. Ashbrook, joined four months after institution as an interested party, was contesting ownership rather than the Registrar's decision-making process, which is the domain of the plaintiffs/defendants. It therefore could not invoke the court's discretion to halt the judicial review.

Under Section 27(1) of the Civil Procedure Act costs follow the event. Having failed on both limbs of the stay test, the 3rd Interested Party could not shift costs to the successful Applicants. The court therefore awarded costs of the Notice of Motion dated 17th January 2025 to the 1st to 5th Applicants jointly and severally.