Mohammed Jaffar, Mombasa’s most controversial tycoon, now holds a court-backed power to evict and demolish an entire village after a judge controversially handed his proxy company ownership of land worth billions.
The ruling came after the case was adjourned more than ten times, raising serious questions about judicial process and impartiality. Meanwhile, Jaffar faces multiple fraud allegations totaling billions of shillings—and critics say Kenya’s courts keep handing him victories he should not be winning.
How a Controversial Court Ruling Placed 50,000 Residents Under Eviction Threat
The case, ELCC 67/2021, dragged on for years in the Environment and Lands Court. Petitioners Juma Abdalla Kathenge and Asma Ndugu Juma accused Jaffar of using a front company — Mayport Company Limited — to seize ancestral land valued at Ksh 15 billion in Mombasa’s Mainland North area.
After more than ten adjournments, former Mombasa Environment and Lands Judge Titus Naikuni, now based in Kwale, finally delivered his verdict. He ruled that Mayport Company Limited is the lawful and registered proprietor of the disputed parcel—land subdivision Number 6234, original Number 5220/4, Section I Mainland North, CR No. 20722.
The judge then issued a permanent injunction barring the villagers, their agents, servants, or anyone acting on their behalf from entering, occupying, constructing on, or interfering with the property. The ruling effectively strips more than 50,000 residents of any legal right to their ancestral home.
Naikuni awarded the villagers only Ksh 6 million—against the Chief Land Registrar—for negligence and misfeasance in maintaining the land register. He ordered each party to bear its own legal costs and directed the Chief Land Registrar to file a compliance report within 60 days confirming the rectification of the register.
Proxy Directors Could Not Prove How They Acquired the Land
Mayport Company Limited listed two directors: Shaniz Chatur, formerly a legal advisor at Grain Bulk Limited, and Yakatali Amirali Lamuwalla, who serves as Jaffar’s personal assistant. The connection to Jaffar was not hidden — it was in plain sight.
During the hearing, both directors failed to produce the original title deed for the disputed land. They also failed to table any payment documents to show how Mayport acquired the property from the petitioners.
Senior High Court Counsel Steve Ogola, who represented the villagers, pressed the directors on another glaring irregularity. Jaffar’s own company lawyer, Advocate Oloo, had prepared the sale agreement for the land — yet Oloo was supposed to be representing the buyer, not the seller.
Kenyan property law requires the seller to prepare the sale agreement. The defence had no credible answer. Despite these red flags, the court ruled in Mayport’s favour. Critics say the outcome was predictable.
Watchdogs Raise the Alarm Over Pattern of Court Victories
“This is a case we already knew the outcome,” said Harrison Charo, Executive Director of Justice For All. “The tycoon has never lost any cases, especially within the Mombasa court.”
That track record is hard to dispute. Last year, Mombasa Judge Florence Macharia dismissed a Ksh 750 million fraud case—E30/2020, ATTA Kenya vs Grain Bulk Limited—that targeted Jaffar’s company. The Court of Appeal also ruled in the tycoon’s favour, allowing him to maintain a monopoly on handling bulk grains at the Port of Mombasa.
Two more fraud cases currently hang over Jaffar. A Ksh 1.8 billion petition, No. 17/2018, and a Ksh 90 million case, HCCE025/2020, pitting a Mombasa maize miller against Grain Bulk Limited, both remain unresolved. Investigators allege that Jaffar conspired with former National Lands Commissioners to defraud taxpayers of Ksh 1.8 billion in SGR compensation money, routing the funds through his proxy company Miritini Free Port.
The Kenya Revenue Authority also raided his African Gas offices on 16 October 2020, accusing the company of evading Ksh 200 million in taxes.
Adding to the pressure, the Senate is set to grill Jaffar’s petroleum company, Kitimo, over allegations of supplying fake fuel into the Kenyan market — a scandal that threatens public safety and fair trade across the country.
What Happens Next for the 50,000 Villagers
The villagers have limited options but have not given up. The permanent injunction is in force, but their lawyers can appeal the ruling in a higher court. The Ksh 6 million awarded against the Chief Land Registrar signals the court acknowledged that state negligence played a role in this dispute—a thread that could prove vital in any appeal.
Civil society organizations, including Justice For All, are demanding that the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission investigate how Mayport Company Limited acquired registered title to land that a community has occupied for generations, without producing a single payment document or original title deed in court.
The Senate hearings on the fuel scandal could also draw fresh parliamentary scrutiny to Jaffar’s wider business empire. For now, 50,000 Mombasa residents face the prospect of losing everything—their homes, their land, and a history stretching back generations—to a company whose directors cannot explain how they came to own it.
