The Environment and Land Court in Bungoma has nullified the Sh5.02 billion Kanduyi Airstrip Smart City Affordable Housing Project, declaring its tender process unconstitutional and ordering the disputed public land to be restored to its original condition within 45 days.
Justice Kossy Bor delivered the judgment virtually on Thursday, October 8, 2026, ruling that the project failed to comply with constitutional requirements governing public land management, environmental protection and public participation.
The court found that the development violated Articles 10, 42, 62 and 69 of the Constitution, covering national values and governance, environmental rights, public land, and environmental protection, respectively, and declared the project’s tender process and underlying contract void.
The land in question, approximately 36.95 acres registered as Bungoma Township/345, had been reserved for aviation purposes as the Kanduyi Airstrip. Justice Bor found that it could not lawfully be repurposed for housing development without first following the prescribed legal procedure for changing its designated use, a step the project had not followed.
Public participation emerged as a central issue in the case, with the court finding that the process had not been properly carried out before the project’s approval and implementation began.
The court directed the respondents to restore the land to its original state at their own cost within 45 days and separately ordered the Kenya Airports Authority and the National Land Commission to establish within 14 days whether six additional parcels — Bungoma Municipality/610, 611, 612, 852, 795 and 799 — also formed part of the land originally reserved for the airstrip.
The project had been intended to deliver 2,034 housing units, along with associated social amenities. Justice Bor went beyond the narrow legal questions before the court, also questioning the broader rationale for establishing a “smart city” on airstrip land.
She noted that a separate affordable housing project was already under way in Musiloma Ward within the same Kanduyi Constituency.
The judge said the smart city concept did not adequately address the housing needs of Bungoma’s wider population, suggesting that access to clean water, electricity, sanitation and affordable construction materials may represent more pressing priorities for residents than the scrapped development.
The ruling marks the second major court setback for a Ruto-era housing initiative in Bungoma, following an earlier Environment and Land Court order last year that temporarily halted the same project amid resident complaints over its location.
It also comes just days after the Court of Appeal upheld the constitutionality of the Affordable Housing Act, 2024, in a separate case challenging the legal framework underpinning the government’s wider housing programme across the country.
The developments underscore that, although the Act itself has survived its highest legal test to date, individual projects implemented under it remain subject to separate legal scrutiny over their implementation.
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