Meso s/o Mwakakobe v. Lijumbete s/o Kasyama, (PC) Civ. App. 127-D-67, 4/11/67, Saudi J.

Meso s/o Mwakakobe v. Lijumbete s/o Kasyama, (PC) Civ. App. 127-D-67, 4/11/67, Saudi J.

The brother of plaintiff, suffering from an incurable disease, obtained a licence from defendant to build and live in a hut on defendant’s land so that he could be near the hospital where he received his treatment. This occupancy lasted for 14 years, until the licensee died there. After he had been buried in his original village, the plaintiff tried to enter on the land; defendant resisted, and these proceedings were instituted.

            Held: There was no evidence showing that the licensee “had cultivated any part of the ….land or that such land had been separated by boundaries or other marks from the remaining land held by [the defendant].” It rather appeared that he had merely been given a right of occupancy to facilitate the treatment of his illness. “This style of occupation [cannot be held] to have established a permanent right to the ….. land” to which the plaintiff could succeed.