- Francis Njeru said he had not asked the police to guard the four acres at Nairobi's Inland Container Depot and was unaware of any court orders for police deployment.
- Two suspects are facing charges of conspiracy to defraud Njeru of his land on October 19, 2015
A businessman has protested the deployment of police officers on his land being claimed by two people.
Francis Njeru said he had not asked the police to guard the four acres at Nairobi's Inland Container Depot and was unaware of any court orders for police deployment.
Njeru had just successfully evicted Ahmed and Farah Mohammed from the land before officers were deployed to the property.
The two, who are directors at ARJ Capital Limited, were charged with conspiracy to defraud Njeru of his land on October 19, 2015.
ARJ Capital Ltd had been occupying the land - LR. NO 20273
“This appears to be intimidation. Why have officers been deployed to my land? I did not ask for any police officers,” Njeru said.
Embakasi police boss Francis Kamau said he was aware of the land but was not sure whether officers had been deployed to guard it.
“I am not aware if officers have been deployed there. It is something I must confirm with the OCS,” he told the Star.
On October 23, Njeru obtained a court order from senior resident magistrate D.M., Kivuti to take possession of the land.
Njeru said the letter ARJ used to apply for officers to guard the land had no LR number and title documents attached. “The commander overlooked all these while instructing police officers to go guard private property,” Njeru added.
In the letter seen by the Star, ARJ Capital said they needed four officers to guard their premises for 30 days, day and night. The letter was received at Nairobi area and bears the stamp of the staff officer for operations.
ARJ Capital paid Sh360,000 to hire the four officers.
The office of the Nairobi regional police commander on November 10 wrote to police in Embakasi to provide officers for security as Siuma auctioneers had evicted ARJ Capital.
The letter was signed by police officer Samuel Boit on behalf of Regional police commander Rashid Yakub.
“This is to confirm that Francis Nyaga Njeru has today, 13 November 2020, at 3.45pm taken vacant possession of premises on LR Number 2027 (IR no 176998 ) after successful execution of civil suit 1346/2020," a letter signed by Zacharia Baraza of Siuma Auctioneers reads.
It was addressed to Njeru after handing over the land.
Last week, the High Court dismissed the Director of Public Prosecution's request to withdraw fraud charges against the two.
No reason was given for the application to drop the charges and Judge Ogembo Ogola said the case must proceed and justice must run its course.
He said justice can only be done and seen to be done if the criminal case before the lower court is allowed to go on in a normal manner.
Ahmed and Mohammed were also charged with making a false title document and obtaining land registration by false pretences.
Ahmed denied the charge before Milimani resident magistrate R. Aganyo on January 21 this year and was released on Sh2 million bond. Njeru had sued the China Road and Bridge Corporation for allegedly occupying the land illegally.
ARJ Capital Limited, owned by Ahmed and Mohammed, then moved to court to be enjoined in the suit as interested parties. ARJ had leased the land to China Road and Bridge Corporation.
(Edited by V. Graham)