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Kenya's Court of Appeal has overturned a ruling that had ordered billionaire John Kibunga Kimani's company, Rural Development Services, to complete the sale of a 51.28-acre parcel of land in Makuyu, Murang'a County, valued at Sh205.3 million, delivering a significant legal victory to one of the country's most reclusive and influential investors.
The appellate court in Nyeri delivered its decision on March 25, 2026, reversing the Environment and Land Court's finding that had required Rural Development Services to proceed with the transaction with the buyer, African Cotton Industries. The lower court had also entertained a claim for damages of Sh846.3 million, including alleged loss of profits from a stalled expansion plan.
The land dispute traces its origins to July 2013, when Rural Development Services entered into a sale agreement with African Cotton Industries for the Makuyu parcel. A 10% deposit of Sh20.5 million was paid. The deal, however, did not progress. Court papers show that Kimani had second thoughts after pressure from family members who objected to selling the property, which forms part of the family's rural and matrimonial home. The deposit was refunded promptly.
The buyer's witnesses had argued that Kimani was not in stable mental health at the time he signed the agreement, citing a road accident in February 2013 and other illnesses. The lower court found insufficient evidence to support claims of diminished mental capacity. African Cotton Industries was later offered between 30 and 40 acres as a compromise, but rejected the proposal, insisting on acquiring the full parcel.
The Court of Appeal found that the prompt refund of the deposit fundamentally undermined the buyer's basis for claiming specific performance of the contract. "The trial court ordered specific performance on the basis of its finding of a constructive trust. Under the special conditions, the respondent had the opportunity to give notice of termination of the contract and to seek a refund of the deposit. It did not do so, probably because the deposit was safely in its bank, having been refunded by the appellant," the appellate court noted in its ruling.
The court was equally critical of the buyer's failure to mitigate any loss in the years since the transaction collapsed. "It is unacceptable that a party stays put without mitigating its loss, if any, for the reason that it cannot find suitable land comparable to the appellant's land. This certainly is not a serious proposition, seven years later, after the aborted sale," the court stated.
Who is John Kibunga Kimani
The ruling protects land interests held by one of Kenya's most quietly powerful businessmen. Kimani was born into a squatter family in Makuyu, the same area where the disputed land sits, and built his wealth over decades through patient, disciplined investment in blue-chip stocks at the Nairobi Securities Exchange.
He is the largest individual shareholder in Kakuzi Plc, an agricultural giant with more than 39,000 acres under tea, avocados, macadamia, forestry and livestock in Murang'a County. His stake stands at approximately 34.54%, equivalent to 6.76 million shares, making it deeply personal that his family's ancestral and matrimonial home territory was at the centre of the dispute. His total NSE portfolio, which also includes stakes in Safaricom, Nation Media Group and Centum Investment, is valued at more than Sh2.8 billion ($22 million), placing him among the six wealthiest individual investors on the exchange.
Kimani is a rural development consultant who led the planning team for Kenya's Tana and Athi River basins, collaborating with international partners including the World Bank, JICA of Japan, DANIDA of Denmark and GTZ of Germany. He is a director at Kakuzi Plc. Known for his extreme dislike of publicity and cameras, he moves around Nairobi without the trappings that typically accompany his level of wealth, servicing his car at a downtown garage and avoiding social events where most of Kenya's business elite congregate.
Rural Development Services, his company, holds extensive land across Kenya, making Kimani one of the largest private landowners in the country. The Makuyu parcel that was the subject of the dispute is among that landholding, and the Court of Appeal's ruling means it remains in his hands.
