•The controversial politician said that if the state has time to question the Weston Hotel land but seems to ignore other land grabbing cases in the country.
• Gachagua said that DP Ruto was not allocated the land but he bought it.
Image: /FILE
Mathira Member of Parliament Rigathi Gachagua has now challenged the state to look into all land grabbing cases and not just dwell on the Weston Hotel land.
The ownership of the land, occupied by the hotel belonging to Deputy President William Ruto, is presently at the centre of a court battle.
Speaking to KTN News, the controversial politician said that if the state has time to question the Weston land but seems to ignore other land grabbing cases in the country.
“If you have time to question 1.7 acres, why didn't you take time to question the grabbing of thousands of acres belonging to the Mau Mau?” he posed.
Gachagua said that DP Ruto was not allocated the land but he bought it.
He has blamed the government for concentrating on the Weston Hotel land case when there are a lot of unresolved land grabbing cases.
“Let us not use this issue of corruption to generally demonize people without evidence,” Gachagua said.
Rarienda Member of Parliament, Otiende Amollo has said that the land grabbing that is now being unravelled is now in court. It was previously being dealt with by the National Land Commission.
“It is not a question of who signed what, it is a question of whether the land was legitimately and lawfully acquired. All grabbed lands are usually signed off,” he said.
Weston Hotel is at the Court of Appeal in a case where they have faulted High Court Judge Bernard Eboso for allowing the petition by KCAA to proceed for hearing.
Priority Limited and Monene Investment wanted the suit by Kenya Civil Aviation Authoritydismissed arguing that the authority should have appealed the decision by the NLC.
NLC had directed Weston to compensate KCAA for the land at the prevailing market rates, a decision Judge Eboso said was not binding.
The case was first logged in 2018 when the KCAA moved to the National Lands Commission to demand the settling of the matter.
KCAA’s legal officer Cyril Wayong’o in 2018 told the National Land Commission that on June 29, 1999, then Commissioner of Lands Sammy Mwaita, wrote to the Directorate of Civil Aviation indicating he had received an application from a church group that wanted to build a church on the site.
The Directorate of Civil Aviation on July 8, 1999, objected and told Mwaita it had plans for the land so it could not be allocated to third parties.
After a back and forth, KCAA established on September 5, 2002, that the parcel had been allocated to two companies — Priority Limited and Monene Investment Limited.
These are the companies that DP Ruto claims he bought the land from.