The High Court has lifted an order to attach the bank accounts of the National Land Commission (NLC) over a Sh503 million debt owed to a private company whose land was compulsorily acquired by the government for the construction of the Nairobi Expressway.
Justice Christine Ochieng lifted the order after the commission complained that its operations, including the payment of staff salaries, had ground to a halt due to a lack of funds.
She also ruled that the order was invalid because the property owner had not complied with the Government Proceedings Act provisions outlining the process for attaching government assets.
The accounts were attached in November last year to enable the property owner, Dembana International Limited, to recover its compensation award for the land parcel compulsorily acquired by the Kenya National Highway Authority (KeNHA) five years ago for the construction of the Nairobi Expressway.
Justice Ochieng of the Environment and Land Court in Nairobi, in a ruling dated June 12, 2025, set aside the garnishee order following a request by NLC, which pleaded that the attachment had also halted compensation for persons affected by other development projects.
NLC said the funds held in the seven attached accounts were not earmarked for the Nairobi Expressway project and revealed that KeNHA was yet to deposit all the money required to compensate property owners whose lands were acquired for the 27.1-kilometre road. It pleaded that the monies in the accounts belonged to different government entities.
Brian Ikol, the NLC’s Director of Legal Affairs and Dispute Resolution, informed the court that the commission’s operations had ground to a halt, to the extent that it could no longer pay salaries or cover daily running costs. This effectively paralysed operations, as its development and recurrent accounts had been frozen.
He argued that people affected by various projects risked being rendered homeless and displaced, and left without a source of income since their homes and businesses had been demolished to pave the way for public purpose projects, but they had not been compensated to purchase alternative land.
“Sustaining the attachment of the bank accounts would affect the government projects that have underlying costs and contractual obligations,” he said.
He added that public funds would be lost in the form of penalties for breach of contractual obligations.
The contested court order affected NLC’s seven bank accounts at the National Bank of Kenya, Hill Plaza branch, and was in favour of Dembana International Limited, which is claiming Sh503 million being the balance of the revised compensation award of Sh804 million for its land.
The company’s 0.6443-hectare plot of land, situated in South C along Mombasa Road, was acquired by the NLC on behalf of the KeNHA for the construction of the road.
Dembana commenced garnishee proceedings on the grounds that the Constitution provides for the prompt and full payment of compensation to individuals or entities whose land has been compulsorily acquired by the NLC for public purposes. The company obtained a decree on 11 October 2024.
Through its director, Russom Team Ghebremedhin, the property owner argued that the NLC was under a duty to obey the law, and that the insulation and immunity granted to the company are intended to protect the public interest and ought not to operate against it.
The company also wanted the NLC chairperson, together with the secretary and finance director, to be cited in contempt.
However, Justice Ochieng ruled that the company had failed to comply with the Government Proceedings Act in its efforts to obtain compensation.
“I find that the garnishee proceedings commenced by the decree holder were premature and incompetent for failure to adhere to the provisions of the Government Proceedings Act. It is my considered view that the rationale of the provisions of the Government Proceedings Act that outlines procedures on execution against and attachment of the Government’s assets and property was not stipulated in vain, since the monies will still emanate from public coffers,” said the judge.
