Beja & another v Cabinet Secretary Ministry of Lands & 9 others (Environment and Land Petition 13 of 2022) [2026] KEELC 1295 (KLR)
The bottom line
#The Environment and Land Court in Malindi refused to let five people join a finished land petition or reopen its judgment, because they waited too long.
What this practically means
#Executive summary
#Questions the Court framed
#The issues the Court set itself to decide, in its own words.
- 1.Whether the application is a non-starter for being brought under Order 1 Rule 10, Order 45 Rules 1, 2 and 3 and Order 51 of the Civil Procedure Rules which are not contemplated by the Constitution of Kenya (Protection of Rights and Fundamental Freedoms Practice and Procedure) Rules 2013
- 2.Whether the 1st-7th proposed interested parties should be joined in the suit
- 3.Whether the judgment of the court should be varied, reviewed or set aside to allow the respondents to file evidence not available at the time of determination
- 4.Whether the court should order the County Surveyor and the Land Registrar to conduct a boundary demarcation in respect of GL15A and the Nyika Reserve to show any encroachment
Key legal issues
#Whether joinder of interested parties should be granted in a concluded petition
Joinder refused as an abuse of process; the applicants participated as substantive parties in the sister petition and knew of the present petition throughout
The 3rd-7th proposed interested parties were joined as substantive parties in Malindi Petition No 19 of 2021, heard alongside this petition with judgments delivered the same day. They engaged the same counsel in both petitions. Any joinder application should have been made at the interlocutory stage. Seeking joinder after judgment would backpedal concluded litigation and amounts to an abuse of process.
Whether the concluded judgment of 3rd April 2025 could be varied, reviewed or set aside
Refused; the court adopted the reasoning in its ruling on the identical application dated 6/5/2025 in Malindi Petition No 19 of 2021
The present application is on all fours with the earlier application in the sister petition, which the court had already determined by dismissing the review and demarcation prayers. Given the identity of subject matter, the court could not reach different findings and adopted the earlier reasoning to conserve judicial resources.
Whether an order for boundary demarcation of GL15A and the Nyika Reserve could issue
Refused, consistent with the earlier ruling in the sister petition
The prayer mirrored the one dismissed in Malindi Petition No 19 of 2021. Because both applications concern the same land, the court held it could not afford to come to different findings and adopted its prior reasoning dismissing the demarcation prayer. The demarcation prayer was also attacked by the Attorney General as unavailable once judgment had been delivered.
Legal principles established
#- Where two petitions concerning the same land raise identical issues in successive applications, the court will adopt the same findings in the interests of consistency and judicial economy
- Fair hearing and equality before the law under Article 50(1) govern determinations of parties' rights, but joinder must be sought bona fide and timeously
Court orders
#- 1.The Notice of Motion dated 8th May 2025 is dismissed
- 2.Costs of the application awarded to the petitioners
The bench
#One judgment of the whole court — no separate or dissenting opinions.
Wrote the judgment
- Jurisdiction invoked
- Constitution of Kenya (Protection of Rights and Fundamental Freedoms Practice and Procedure) Rules 2013 (Mutunga Rules) - constitutional petition jurisdiction of the ELC
- Consolidated with
- Malindi Petition No 19 of 2021 (heard alongside, separate judgment)
Relief refused
#Joinder of the five applicants as interested parties
Application brought too late in the day and constitutes an abuse of the court process; the applicants were aware of the related petitions and engaged the same counsel
Review/vary/set aside of the judgment delivered 3rd April 2025 and leave to file further evidence
Court adopted its reasoning in the application dated 6/5/2025 in Malindi Petition No 19 of 2021, where the same prayer was dismissed
Boundary demarcation by the County Surveyor and Land Registrar of GL15A and Nyika Reserve
Prayer dismissed, mirroring the ruling in Malindi Petition No 19 of 2021
Costs
Application dismissed with costs to the petitioners.
Quotable passages
#Verbatim from the judgment, each located to the page it appears on in the official PDF — so these can be cited and checked directly.
To have the applicants seek at this juncture to be joined as interested parties in Malindi Petition No 13 Of 2023 is in this court's view an abuse of the court process.
the application is not justified and it ought to fail for the very reason that the same has been brought too late in the day and the efiect of granting that order would be to backpedal this litigation
This court finds that the reasoning in that case on those issues is applicable in the present ruling, and it hereby adopts the said reasoning in the said ruling in respect of issues nos (a), (c) and (d) listed herein above.
the application dated 8th May 2025 in the present petition lacks merit and the same is dismissed with costs to the petitioners.
Issues in the judgment
#Judgment refers to the judgment of 3rd April 2025 in one passage but as 'judgment of 3/4/24' in the recital of the sister ruling
Recurrent typographical/OCR corruptions in the text (e.g. 'afiord', 'efiect', 'functus oficio', 'overfiowed')
Key timeline
#Practical implications
#Frequently asked questions
#Cite this brief
#Cite this brief
Caselaw, "Beja & another v Cabinet Secretary Ministry of Lands & 9 others (Environment and Land Petition 13 of 2022) [2026] KEELC 1295 (KLR)", Case Analysis (2026). Malindi Petition No 13 of 2023. Source: https://new.kenyalaw.org/akn/ke/judgment/keelc/2026/1295/eng@2026-03-05
Suggested citation format for research notes or client memos. Always verify the original judgment before relying on any point.