• Court documents show that Mukwano Distributors bought the land on January 3, 2015 from Fellow Limited for Sh150 million.
• The land was transferred to Mukwano on April 28, 2015 after the requisite rates were paid to Machakos county.
A man has been charged with multiple land title forgeries involving property worth Sh210 million in Mavoko, Machakos County.
Seuri Legusi Sanoye on Friday denied forging a certificate for the 30-acre property on or before December 1, 1998.
He also denied presenting a forged title deed to Justice Oscar Angote of Machakos Lands Court on June 4 during the hearing of a case in which Mukwano Distributors Limited sought to recover the property which has since been sold to other developers.
Sanoye was further charged with conspiracy to defraud Mukwano Distributors of the property on December 12, 1998.
The final count was that his claim on the land was likely to cause a breach of the peace.
Senior Milimani resident magistrate Sinkiyian Tobiko freed him on Sh500,000 bail or Sh2 million bond with surety of a similar amount.
Court documents show that Mukwano Distributors bought the land on January 3, 2015 from Fellow Limited for Sh150 million.
Fellow had bought the property from Numerical Machining Complex, a parastatal, after getting the green light from President Mwai Kibaki.
The land was transferred to Mukwano on April 28, 2015 after the requisite rates were paid to the Machakos county. The buyer also paid the stamp duty.
When Mukwano sought to take possession of the land in July 2015, Sanoye produced a land rent payment request dated July 29, showing that he is the landowner.
The matter was taken to court after the defendant insisted he was the landowner but the judge ruled against him and told him to vacate the property. A decree was issued to that effect.
“There is evidence Fellow Limited (the vendor) transferred land to Mukwano Distributors for Sh150 million. The said transfer was registered in the land title’s registry, Nairobi, on April 30, 2015,” Angote ruled.
The judge said Sanoye did not prove that the plaintiff procured the title by fraud or misrepresentation or through corruption.
"Indeed, the suit in which he had alleged that he was the proprietor of the suit land was dismissed by the court on February 19, 2018,” he added.
Aggrieved, the accused challenged the ruling in another court using as proof of ownership the alleged forged title deed. This led to his arrest and prosecution on October 9.
Sanoye asked to be held at Muthaiga Police Station until he executes the bond terms, claiming he is unwell and that the prison environment is unfavourable to him.
Permanent structures, including a church and a school, have been built on the contested land.
- mwaniki fm