In Bondo, Siaya County, a family is seeking the intervention of the Chief Justice after receiving two contradictory rulings in a land dispute case.
Sabina Akinyi Masogo, from Sakwa Kaduodi village, is struggling to determine which judgment to follow following a confusing turn of events involving local magistrate John Paul Nandi.
Sabina had filed a case against her late husband’s sister’s husband, Joseph Agola Adundo, accusing him of fraudulently transferring a parcel of land that belonged to her deceased husband, Domnic Masogo Umaya, into his own name.
Sabina claimed that Adundo deceived her husband into handing over the title deed for safekeeping, only to later change it into his name.
On June 26, 2024, the Bondo court initially ruled in Sabina’s favor.
The judgment directed the sub-county lands registrar to correct the records and return the title deed to its rightful owner.
The court determined that the title deed held by Adundo was fraudulently obtained and should be annulled.
However, just ten days later, a second ruling was issued by the same magistrate.
This new judgment contradicted the first one, declaring Sabina’s case as untenable under the Limitations Act and dismissing it with costs awarded to the defendant.
The second ruling was not presented in open court and only appeared on the Judiciary portal after the initial ruling was mysteriously deleted.
Sabina’s lawyer, Ruth Otieno, was taken aback when she found the updated ruling while preparing to serve the decree.
According to Otieno, court officials confirmed the initial ruling was posted and then deleted, and the new judgment was posted in its place.
Otieno questioned how such an error could occur and whether the correct judgment was ever delivered in court.
The magistrate, John Paul Nandi, has since been transferred to Kimilili law courts, and efforts to contact him for comment were unsuccessful.
Bondo court officials confirmed that only magistrates and authorized secretaries are permitted to upload judgments to the portal.
Sabina’s son, Jackton Otieno Masogo, has appealed to the Chief Justice for intervention, arguing that the conflicting judgments undermine public trust in the judiciary and seeking to rectify the situation.
