The High Court in Mombasa has issued warrants of arrest against Mombasa Governor Abdulswamad Nassir and County Attorney Jimmy Waliaula .
High court judge Lucas Naikuni issued the warrant against Nassir and his officers over contempt of court in a multi-billion land suit property that belongs to Innovate Property Limited.
Justice Naikuni directed that the warrants be effected on May 10, 2024, if the governor and his officers fail to obey the court's orders, directing him to vacate his officers from a multi-billion property owned by Innovative Properties Limited.
The judge allowed Nassir to have a meeting with Innovative Properties Limited on May 2, 2024, and have the court notified of the meeting's outcome on May 6, 2024.
"I will allow out-of-court discussion to continue. I feel I should issue a warrant of arrest if the parties fail to reach an agreement hence police can effect the arrest on May 10," Justice Naikuni said.
The judge said the matter was not light and that court orders were not cosmetic.
"You should meet by May 2, 2024, and inform the court of the outcome by May 6 and if there is no compliance, the warrants of arrest will be effected on May 10, 2024," Justice Naikuni said.
Justice Naikuni had on March 7 2024 summoned Nassir to appear before his court to show why he should not be committed to six months in jail for failing to vacate his officers from a multi-billion 0.2641 hectares land situated along Abdel Nassir Road in Mombasa, a property owned by Innovative Properties Limited.
“That the Petitioner (Innovative Properties Limited) to be at liberty to proceed with the execution of the Court Orders- whereby Notice to Show Cause be and is hereby issued to have the following persons appear in Court on April 24, 2024, to show cause why they should not be committed to civil jail for a period of six months for disobeying this Honourable Court order made vide the judgment delivered on January 27, 2021 by Justice Charles Yano and the ensuing decree," the judge stated.
On his part, the County Government lawyer told the court that Nasir and the attorney were out of the country and could not appear in person as summoned by the court.
He said that there was a meeting scheduled between the governor and Innovative Properties Limited on May 2, 2024, to amicably resolve the dispute
Onduso sought for time to solve the matter out of court.
"The Governor and the Attorney are out of the country. But I am instructed there is a meeting scheduled for May 2 2024 next week to settle on the modalities to comply with the judgement of the court," he stated
However, Innovative Properties Limited through lawyer Willis Oluga said he was not privy to any meeting set for May 2, 2024, with the County.
Oluga said his instructions were to apply for warrants of arrest against Nassir and his officers.
"We have had a lot of meetings with Waliaula to see if we can solve the dispute amicably but the County is not serious. I was not aware of the meeting set for May 2 2024. I am applying for warrants of arrest against the three County officers. There is a lot of casualty in the manner the County is approaching the matter," Oluga said.
