(On the Notice of Motion dated 12th May 2026)
1. The Interested Party, Ronald Mwang'ombe, has filed a Notice of Motion dated 12th May 2026 together with a Supporting Affidavit sworn on 13th May 2026 and a Certificate of Urgency of even date. The application seeks, inter alia, orders that Constitution of Kenya Article 63 and Community Land Act Article 8 are the applicable laws governing registration of unregistered community land, and that the Survey Report submitted to this Court be dismissed on jurisdictional grounds.
2. Before considering the merits of any application, this Court is duty bound to satisfy itself that the party moving it is properly before the Court and has the requisite locus standi to file the said application.
3. The record reveals that in ELC No. E001 of 2025, the named parties are Josphat Kimari Mwamburi as the Plaintiff and the Community Land Registrar Taita Taveta County together with 8 Others as Defendants. Ronald Mwang'ombe is described in the application as an "Interested Party."
4. The Court has carefully perused the entire court record in ELC No. E001 of 2025. There is no Order of this Court, or of any competent court, formally joining Ronald Mwang'ombe as an Interested Party to these proceedings. The description of oneself as an "Interested Party" in a pleading or application does not, without more, confer that status. Joinder as a party to proceedings whether as a plaintiff, defendant, or interested party must be sanctioned by an order of court made either upon application or upon the court's own motion, following the applicable rules of procedure.
5. Order 1 Rule 10 of the Civil Procedure Rules, 2010 provides the framework for joinder of parties. A person who wishes to be joined to proceedings must make a formal application for joinder and obtain leave of court. Until such order of joinder is made and served, such a person has no standing before the court as a party and consequently cannot file pleadings, applications or affidavits in the matter.
6. In this case, Ronald Mwang'ombe has not demonstrated to this Court that he was ever formally joined to these proceedings by any court order. His self-designation as "Interested Party" in the documents he has filed cannot substitute for the mandatory procedural step of formal joinder. A party who is not properly on record has no standing to move this Court by way of a Notice of Motion or any other application.
7. The filing of the present application by a person who is not a party of record to these proceedings is therefore fundamentally defective and incompetent. This Court cannot entertain an application filed by a person with no legal standing before it. To do so would be to make an order in favour of or against a person who, as a matter of law and procedure, is a stranger to the proceedings.
8. For the foregoing reasons, the Notice of Motion dated 12th May 2026 together with the Supporting Affidavit and Certificate of Urgency filed by Ronald Mwang'ombe is hereby struck out in limine for want of standing. The applicant is not properly before this Court as he has not been formally joined to these proceedings by any order of court.
9. Should Ronald Mwang'ombe wish to participate in these proceedings, the proper course is to file a formal application for joinder under Order 1 Rule 10 of the Civil Procedure Rules, 2010, which shall be served upon all parties on record and determined in accordance with the law.
10. The costs of and incidental to this application shall be in the cause.
Dated, Signed and Delivered in Voi this 13th May 2026.