A senior Ministry of Health official has been accused of defrauding his father of land worth Sh20 million in March 2011.
Jonah Onentiah Magare, 40, was on Monday charged with colluding with his mother to defraud Joshua Chiefta Gichana Magare of 0.0098ha at Green Fields, Donholm.
According to court documents, Gichana, a retired chief accountant at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, bought land in Nairobi in 2001 with Harambee Sacco but did not pursue the title deed until April 2016.
He went to Ardhi House and discovered the document had been given out to his family members, who have been living together since 1979.
The title deed had been issued five years earlier. It bore the name of his wife Moraa Mogire, whom he had enjoined as a co-owner and Jonah Onentiah, who is not his biological son.
Magare told the court that a search at the Ministry of Lands indicated he signed off the property in September 2011. Investigations by Director of Criminal Investigations revealed that the letter used in the transfer of the property, alleged to have been written by Magare, was forged.
The two were separately charged with conspiring to defraud Magare by registering the parcel to Onentiah on or before March 5, 2011.
They were also charged with forgery and uttering false documents after forging a letter of authority to transfer the lease title of Magare’s property, which was presented to a Harambee Sacco official purporting it to be a genuine document written by him.
Onentiah denied the charges before senior principal magistrate Peter Ooko.
Moraa, 59, was charged on May 22, before similar charges were preferred against their son. She also denied all the charges before chief magistrate Francis Andayi.
Mother and son were released on Sh1 million bond with one surety of a similar amount or an alternative cash bail of Sh500,000.
