Plaintiff in Sh500m land case lied, witness says

In Summary

• When asked if she had any documentation to support the aforementioned request, she said she had received the instructions during a meeting with Roger Robson. 

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Two advocates, Lilian lofty and Nafysa Adam, yesterday confirmed to the court that they respectively prepared and witnessed the execution of the Power of Attorney (POA) relating to a sh500 million property in Karen.The two were working at Raffman Dhanji Elms & Virdee Advocates at the time the POA was prepared in 2010 and where lawyer Guy Elms is accused of forging the same.

Lofty, currently an Advocate and partner at the law firm of Daly and Inammdar, confirmed to the court that indeed she prepared the POA following Roger’s request.

When asked if she had any documentation to support the aforementioned request, she said she had received the instructions during a meeting with Roger Robson. She also gave details of the standard practice at her former law firm when a file was opened for a client that the reference number, which also appeared on the POA, had her initials.  

Adam is currently a senior Associate at Hamilton Harrison and Mathews Advocates and told the court that she met Roger in 2010 and witnessed him signing the POA granting powers to Guy Elms.

Her practice is to only witness a person’s signature if they actually sign in front of her. A third witness, Brigette Kosgey, accused businesswoman Agnes Kagure of lying to the court that she is the owner of disputed land in Karen, Nairobi. 

Kosgey told Justice John Onyiego that the will of the original owner of the land — Rogers Robson who died in 2012  — called for his nephew from the United Kingdom to take over the property and turn it into a park for children.

Kosgey was testifying on Thursday in a case in which Britain-born lawyer Guy Spencer Elm has been accused of forging Robson's ' (his client's) will. She said Robson' signature in a conveyance and other documents between him (Robson) and Kagure dated November 2011 was forged.

"Having spent a considerable amount of time with Rogers, I can confidently state that he would not have sold No 95 Ushirika Road for any amount. So when I see someone say the property is theirs, it is not true," Kosgey said.

Kagure has been laying claim to the land. She alleges to have bought the disputed land from Robson for Sh100 million in 2011 and later accused Spencer of planning to transfer the property to himself and dispose of it.

But according to the witness, Robson had his will safely stored by his lawyer Spencer with directions to leave his assets to his nephew and to charity. Kosgey dealt with Robson while she was working at Old Mutual as the personal assistant to the Group CEO between 2009 and 2012. 

She told Justice Onyiego that Robson's househelp,  Jack Mulinge, visited their offices in November 2009  to recover proceeds from a policy that had matured. Since Mulinge did not come with any documents, the witness had to frequently visit Robson at his home which led to their being closely acquainted.  "The late Rogers was a very lonely and depressed man.

He only lived with his househelp Mulinge. He was not married. He said he never found any suitable partner,"  the witness said. But Robson, she said, was very passionate about the environment.  Kosgey said that at some point, he wanted to convert his living area into a church and the rest of the property into a park where children could play. Rogers died in August 2012 and the power of attorney had been given to Spencer in 2010.  

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