-
In July, Wamunyoro Investments filed a suit claiming former director of Physical Planning tampered with records at the land office, to rob him of the property.
-
Gachagua is the managing director of Wamunyoro.
Image: DPPS
A labour court has extended orders stopping the transfer and sale of a Sh1.5 billion property that Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua is fighting to reclaim.
Justice Ogutu Mboya extended the orders to October 13 and took out Monday's hearing date after issues of legal representation arose.
In July, Wamunyoro Investments, through lawyer Philip Nyachoti, filed a suit claiming former director of Physical Planning John Michael Ohas tampered with records at the land office, to rob him of the property.
Gachagua is the managing director of Wamunyoro Investments.
The property, according to Gachagua, is charged to Equity Bank as collateral for various financial facilities granted to him at Sh200 million.
"Wamunyoro has always been the legal owner of the disputed property,” Gachagua said.
"However, Ohas and his company Colombus Two Thousand in December 2019 deliberately tampered with the records at the lands office, such that any official search on the property currently indicates that Colombus is the registered owner.”
Mboya, in pushing the matter to October, gave the two advocates claiming to be representing Ohas and the company time to sort out the representation issue.
“Let the two advocates Moses Owuor and one Ngala sort out the issue of representation. Whoever shall have gotten the requisite paycheck is welcome on October 13. I will not be drawn into that fight,” he said.
The judge, however, joked with advocate Nyachoti, saying, “If it finds favour with you Nyachoti, titles in Africa matter so much. You can remove Hon in your witness and put H.E.”
According to the court documents, Ohas has been accused of causing a parallel title to be irregularly and unlawfully issued to his company, Colombus.
Court documents show the previous owners of the land situated in Nairobi were Karandi Farm limited, Peter Mbugua and Pauline Muringe.
The three were on April 30, 1999, jointly allotted the property for a sum of Sh554,000. The money was paid and a certificate was issued.
Gachagua was subsequently approached by the owners of the property with the intention of selling it.
“I carried out due diligence and was able to confirm that the previous owners' certificate of title was authentic and indeed genuine,” he said.
Gachagua then purchased the property for Sh24 million from the previous owners.
A transfer was effected and a title deed was issued to the company. From the time he purchased it in 2012, he has been paying land rates to the Nairobi county government.
But in 2016, Ohas and his company lodged a formal complaint with the National Land Commission against Wamunyoro over the property.
Ohas claimed to have been allotted the land on February 3, 1994, and soon thereafter, the property was invaded by thousands of squatters who made it impossible for him to utilise.
Some 18 years later, the government evicted the squatters. When interest to develop the property arose, Ohas, as quoted in the documents by Gachagua, discovered it had been fenced off by someone claiming ownership.
"Ohas claims to have carried out investigations, which revealed that the title had been secretly issued to another person without his knowledge," an affidavit sworn by Gachagua reads.
Wamunyoro then put in a memorandum before the NLC explaining how they acquired the land.
They told NLC that when they purchased the property, a search was conducted and it was confirmed at the lands registry that the previous sellers were the legal and rightful owners of the land.
The NLC, after hearing from both parties,in March 2916 said the property belongs to Wamunyoro.
Wamunyoro said Colombus has never taken any steps to review or appeal the said decision.
“The decision is still in full force and therefore binding upon Ohas and his company,” Gachagua said.
(Edited by Bilha Makokha)