Operations at Village Market to go on pending hearing of case

A Land Court has allowed operations at the Village Market and Tribe Hotel to go on but has restricted parties from transferring or charging the property ownership.

Justice Oscar Angote said parties in the case should maintain the status quo following a suit filed by the Koinange family that has accused Greenhills Investments Limited of grabbing the land where the high-end shopping complex has been built.

The judge at the same time allowed the Chief Lands Registrar and the Attorney General to participate in the suit.

He also gave a local bank that has been drugged into the alleged 'fraudulent dealings' 14 days to file its response in the case.

The beneficiaries of former provincial commissioner Charles Karuga Koinange filed the suit on October 6. Charles was the second son of former colonial chief Mbiyu Wa Koinange.

His children - Peter Mbiyu Koinange, Isabella Wanjiku Karanja, Samuel Karuga Koinange have accused GreenHills Investments Limited and the local Bank of working in cahoots to grab the property.

Through their Lawyer Ashford Muriuki, the trio have attached documents dated back to November 1983 showing Charles as the legitimate owner. They claim the property has never been sold or transferred to GreenHills or the bank (defendants).

The property forms part of the prime assets belonging to the Koinange family. It is also to be distributed among the three beneficiaries. But the process, according to their Lawyer, has been halted owing to the illegal transactions and charges existing on the property.

The administrators have asked the court to intervene and cancel GreenHills title and order rectification of the register to reflect their name as proprietor of the property.

They also want them ordered to surrender the property in default, they be evicted and made to pay damages for illegal occupation or compensation at the current market rates.

Also sought is an order stopping the defendants from selling, transferring or dealing with the property situated at Gigiri.

“We have discovered that the defendants have illegally and fraudulently acquired the property without our consent. They have done so by obtaining an illegal charge on the property sometime in 2016 all in favour of the bank, ” they claim.

The complex which is built in Gigiri, Nairobi's diplomatic zone, is home to over 150 outlets.

It is estimated to be worth at least Sh20 billion.

In the documents filed before the Environment and Lands Court, the Koinange’s have set out occasions where GreenHills obtained Sh8.5 billion loans in form of US dollars from a local bank so as to develop the property.

The Koinanges want the loan that GreenHills tapped from the bank to be declared invalid.

They claim the 'dealings' started in June 2016, when GreenHills obtained US dollars 53,634,522 (Sh6.4 billion) loan from the bank and subsequently registered an invalid charge on the property.

Still in the same month, the company obtained Sh12 million from the bank which was secured through an invalid charge on what Mbiyu terms as a ‘fraudulent title’.

Three months later, the company obtained a loan of US dollars 11,512,913 (Sh1.3 billion) from the bank and registered a further illegal charge.

Two years later in month of September, the company obtained US dollars 5 million (Sh607 million) from the bank and registered an invalid charge.

“The defendants have aggravated the fraudulent and illegal transfer of our property by irregularly obtaining a total of Sh8 billion between June 2016 and September 2018,”

But on their part, GreenHills claims to be the genuine purchaser of the land where they built the Village Market and Tribe Hotel.

“We have never been aware of the plaintiff’s interest over the property,” reads part of their documents.

They say they relied on the register and searches issued by the Chief Lands Registrar before they got the property.

The case will proceed on January 23 next year.