The Court of Appeal has dismissed an application by members of the Mavoko Muundani Residents Association who were seeking to block their eviction from disputed parcels of land owned by East Africa Portland Cement PLC (EAPC).
In a ruling delivered on 30th July 2025, Justices Patrick Kiage, Weldon Korir, and George Odunga held that the residents had failed to demonstrate that they had an arguable case to warrant the court’s intervention through an injunction.
The residents led by David Musau, James Kigera, Michael Wambua, Daniel Kimweli, and Boniface Mutinda had moved to the appellate court after the Environment and Land Court in Machakos dismissed their initial plea for interim orders in February 2025. The contested parcels, listed as L.R. Nos. 8784/144, 8784/145, and 8784/653, are part of a larger landholding currently being regularized and allocated by the cement firm.
Through their lawyer Mr. Loki, the applicants argued that the process of regularizing ownership of the land had become opaque, with some residents being dispossessed and their plots allegedly allocated to third parties, despite prior public participation exercises.
But the appellate judges faulted the applicants for failing to clearly articulate any genuine legal issues worth pursuing on appeal.
“Save for the general contention that the intended appeal is arguable and has chances of success, we are unable to find any arguable ground that faults the learned Judge’s exercise of discretion,” the bench stated.
The court further emphasized that for it to grant such orders, the applicants needed to prove two things: that their appeal was arguable and that failure to issue injunctions would render the appeal nugatory criteria the residents failed to meet.
The original decision by Justice N.A. Matheka of the Machakos court had noted that while the land was indeed registered in the name of EAPC, and some level of public participation had taken place, the applicants had not established a prima facie case to stop the ongoing regularization and sale process.
With this latest ruling, the residents now face imminent eviction or demolition of their homes, unless they pursue and succeed in a substantive appeal.
