Kisumu — The Kisumu High Court on Wednesday started listening to witnesses in a case where Redeemed Gospel Church took the County Government of Kisumu to court over wrongful demolition of its structures in 2020.
Lady Justice E. Asati of the Environment and Land Court in Kisumu, announced that the court has dedicated 2 days to listen to the witnesses as they are cross examined by the attorneys of the plantiff and the defendants.
First to take to the witness stand on Wednesday afternoon was Pastor David Otieno of Redeemed Gospel Church situated next to the Moi Stadium in a 2.5 hectare land.
While being cross examined by lawyer Robert Okumu, who is representing the County Government of Kisumu in the matter, the court heard that the church bought the land from a Limited Company way back in early 2000.
Pastor Otieno was at pains to explain how they bought the land, which the county government has maintained was irregularly acquired since it was purchased without doing due diligence.
According to court records and proceedings, the land was registered in the name of a former civic leader, now deceased before he sold it to a private developer.
According to City Manager Abala Wanga, who was the second witness to take the stand, the land was a public land, before it was allegedly transferred to the former Councilor with a view of developing a primary and secondary schools.
However, the Councilor, did not adhere to the rules and failed to construct the schools but choose to sell it out to a Limited Company.
Pastor Otieno said the Church would then approach the Limited Company with an intention to purchase the land.
"We bought the land at Sh. 5 million after doing due diligence and confirmed that indeed they are the real owners of the land," he told Court.
Despite all these, Pastor Otieno was incoherent in explaining why the purchase cheque was not written in the name of the directors of the limited company.
"The cheque was written in the name of the mother to the two directors, they said the money was safe in their mothers account," he said.
Lawyer Okumu while cross examining the witness said records filed in court by the plaintiff were inconsistence, an indication, there was no due diligence conducted by the Church before the purchase.
On the issue of demolition of the church property, Pastor Otieno told Court there was no notice issued, which was replied by Abala when he took the stand producing copies of notices, some dating back to when Dorice Ombara was the City Manager.
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The county government is asking the court to revoke the lease that was issued and have the land reverted to the county.
Abala in his submission said that once a land has been leased out with a purpose, and for this matter, building of a school, it should be returned if the intention is not met.
The land was extensively mentioned in the Ndungu Land Report, that listed it among grabbed public land in Kisumu.
However, Lawyer James Mwamu representing the plantiff showed Court the correspondences from the Commissioner of Lands office disputing the Ndungu Land Report.
The third witness is expected to take stand tomorrow.
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