Alfred Edwin Didymus Khaseke & 3 others v Nyongesa Wandera Maurice & 1 other

Sections 25 and 28 preserve overriding interests, and section 62 subjects transmission on death to unregistered enforceable liabilities, rights or interests that bound the deceased proprietor. The claimant must prove at least one listed interest and prove it by evidence as unregistered and enforceable. The appellants never brought their claim within any written law; their alleged purchaser's interests rested on sales by persons without letters of administration, which were nullities under section 45 of the Law of Succession Act.

Allegations of fraud must be specifically pleaded and proved, and no counter-claim pleading and particularising fraud was filed. The 1st respondent obtained registration through a confirmed grant issued by a competent court, unreviewed and unappealed. Under the proviso to section 26 of the Land Registration Act, a certificate of title is not conclusive where fraud is proved, but the appellants marshalled no evidence to bring themselves within that proviso.

Section 45 of the Law of Succession Act prohibits intermeddling with a deceased person's property except as expressly authorised by the Act, other written law, or a grant of representation. John Opiyo and Francis Bwire Khaseke were not administrators of the estate of Juma Odundo Khaseke when they purportedly sold parcels to the 1st and 2nd appellants. The purported sales were therefore nullities and could not ground a lawful claim under section 26(f) of the Land Registration Act.

This being a first appeal, the Court restated the classic duty to re-evaluate the evidence on record and draw its own conclusions, citing Selle v Associated Motor Boat Co and Abdul Hameed Saif v Ali Mohamed Sholan. It then applied that duty to the evidence of registration, transmission and the succession proceedings, ultimately affirming the trial court's application of the Land Registration Act provisions.