Nairobi, Aug. 18 -- When the Kwale lands court conducted a site visit to a 10-acre parcel in Diani on February 28, 2025, the judge was looking for signs of decades-old occupation by four families as claimed in a case before him.

The families of Mohamed Mambo, Juma Kimbirwa, Suleiman Mwalali and Mwinyi Juma Bugu had claimed that at the time property developers started putting up luxury villas on the land, they had occupied it for between 20 and 40 years.

By the time of the site visit, all the original plaintiffs had died, and their children - Halima Mambo, Kadiri Juma Kimbirwa, Nasoro Juma Mwalali and Mahmoud Mwinyi Mwabugu - had taken their parents' place in the case.

The four families sued Richard Livingstone Hawkins, John Edward Lesl...