Ayado (Suing on her own behalf as a married woman and as the administrator of the Estate of Joseph Ndege Jowi - Deceased) v Wangwe & 2 others (Environment and Land Case E002 of 2023) [2026] KEELC 1841 (KLR)

The court held that a plea of limitation is a pure point of law resolvable on the pleadings. The plaintiff herself pleaded the subdivision and transfer occurred on 10th June 1987 and sought eviction of the 2nd defendant, showing he had been in occupation since then; she therefore knew or should with due diligence have known of the alleged fraud. Facts about discovery raised in submissions cannot substitute for pleadings. Even on the title issued to her side on 12th January 2015, the suit filed eight years later was out of time.

Applying Mukisa Biscuits and Oraro v Mbaja, the court held that a preliminary objection must be a pure point of law argued on the assumption that the facts pleaded by the other side are correct. Grounds requiring factual ascertainment or evidence fall outside that definition. Laches and limitation could be determined from the pleadings; the pleading-vagueness ground could not.

The 2nd defendant argued the plaintiff lacked locus standi because she produced no grant over her husband's or her co-wife's estate. The court found she had obtained a Limited Grant ad Litem on 23rd March 2022 and therefore had capacity to sue on behalf of the estate.

The plaintiff's own documents showed parcel 726 was registered to the estate she represented, yet she neither pleaded fraud as to it nor sought its nullity, while seeking to nullify parcel 727 and revert the land to the original number. The court viewed this as approbating and reprobating contrary to the clean-hands doctrine, though the dismissal rested on limitation.