This archive report was first published on 4 August 2019.
On August 4, 2019, the Lands and Environment court made a ruling that would change the life of Gabriel Otieno, a Kisumu resident, forever.
According to the court's decision, Otieno's wife had taken a Sh3 million loan from the Kenya Women Finance Trust (KWFT) for her business, but failed to repay the loan.
As security for the loan, Otieno's wife had surrendered title deeds for their eight parcels of land to KWFT.
However, when Otieno's wife failed to comply with KWFT's loan repayment demands, the court gave the greenlight for KWFT to sell the parcels of land to recover the loan.
Justice Stephen Kibunjia, in his ruling, stated that Otieno had not disputed the address attributed to him and therefore the issue of whether or not he received the notices from KWFT was an issue to be pursued during the hearing of the main suit, which was still pending in the lower court.
Justice Kibunjia also noted that the evidence brought by Otieno showed that the loan given to his wife was yet to be cleared, and it was only fair and just if the borrower and the guarantor met the demands of their lender.
The court's decision has left Otieno with a huge loss, as he had moved to court in an attempt to retrieve the title deeds and stop KWFT from exercising power of sale on his parcels of land.
