Andrew Ndola Ndolo’s trial has started at Kilungu Law Courts in Makueni County.
The suspect is the son of the former Chief of General Staff, the late Major General Joseph Musyimi Ndolo.
He is facing twelve counts of assault, robbery with violence, burglary and stealing, malicious damage to properties worth millions of shillings and causing disturbance.
He is said to have committed the offences when he allegedly stormed two homesteads at Kalimbini (B) Village in Makueni County a year ago.
The trial kicked off before Senior Principal Magistrate Godfrey Okwengu on Tuesday.
Titus Ngile Masila, the complainant in the case, told the court that Ndola commandeered a gang of goons who stormed his house in the dawns of July 2 and July 21, 2022.
"He didn't produce an eviction order. It took police intervention for Ndola to stop the eviction,” Masila said.
Standing for more than 4 hours at the witness stand, Masila told the court that he sought medication after he was assaulted by the goons using kicks, blows and sticks.
"They stole my two mobile phones and a watch," he said.
He produced a document showing that he had also lost an assortment of household items including furniture and clothing during the two raids.
However, he was hard-pressed to link Ndola to the alleged assault and theft during cross-examination.
With a battery of three lawyers, Ndola mounted a spirited fight to exonerate himself.
"Since your compound was the scene of the crime, and you have explained that you met Ndola outside your compound, it then means the accused was not at the crime scene," one of the lawyers said in a bid to create an alibi for the son of the former army boss.
The lawyers took turns in highlighting glaring inconsistency between Ngile's witness statements and his submission in court as they poked holes in what they termed trumped-up charges.
Ndola's lawyers concurred with Ngile that the case is linked to a longstanding dispute over a 3,000-acre parcel of land pitting the family of the former army boss and 85 residents of Kalimbini (B) Village.
Seven witnesses are lined up to testify against Ndola in the criminal case stemming from the raid on Kalimbini B residents.
Okwengu adjourned the trial to August 21, 2023, after Ndola's lawyers insisted they needed more time to cross-examine Ngile.
Ndola first appeared in the same court on March 30, 2023, where he pleaded not guilty to all the charges levelled against him.
The dispute over the vast ranch near Sultan Hamud Township along Nairobi – Mombasa highway pits the Ndolo family and 85 squatters.
The late general’s family has moved to the Supreme Court in the main ownership case seeking to evict the squatters who include prominent and wealthy personalities.
“On the 21st day of July, 2022 at Kalimbini (B) Village in Sultan Hamud Sub-location, Mukaa Sub-county within Makueni County, being armed with offensive weapons such as iron rods, clubs, and jembe handles, jointly with others not before the court, robbed Titus Ngile Masila of assorted clothing, pairs of shoes, jewellery, kitchenware, a blow-dry machine, Roch TV 43 inches, decoder, two mobile phones make Samsung and Huawei and microwave all valued at Sh195,000," the prosecution stated.
He is also accused of damaging permanent houses and assorted household items valued at Sh1,140,000 and Sh2,710,000 belonging to Ngile and one of his neighbours, Chris Nzomo Ngila, respectively.
Ndola also faces another charge of setting on fire an excavator valued at Sh5,003,000 which had been hired from Azicon Kenya Limited, and assaulting and injuring its operator, Benedict Mwangangi Muse, allegedly after he failed to take ‘some’ orders.
He is also accused of assaulting and injuring Kennedy Mutua Kamuya, Joseph Munganya Masika and Timothy Musyoka Maitha.
Since General Ndolo, the first African army boss died in a road accident in 1984, his family has been embroiled in land disputes over portions of the 9,000-acre ranch he left behind.
