• Environment and Lands Court judge Oguttu Mboya has ruled in favour of Wamunyoro Investments Limited.
• He said Gachagua has ably established and demonstrated his entitlement to the suit property and should be allowed to benefit and enjoy ownership rights.
Image: PCS
It’s a big win for Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua after the courts vindicated him and declared him the lawful owner of a Sh1.5 billion land near Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.
Gachagua and Michael Ohas, a retired civil servant, were both fighting for the ownership the property. Each claimed to be the legitimate owner.
But Environment and Lands Court judge Oguttu Mboya has ruled in favour of Wamunyoro Investments Limited.
He said Gachagua has ably established and demonstrated his entitlement to the suit property and should be allowed to benefit and enjoy ownership rights.
The court said the Columbus Two Thousand Ltd owned by Ohas, obtained its title fraudulently.
Ohas had claimed they were allocated the same land and produced a letter of allotment dated February 3, 1994.
But the judge after analysing the evidence said Columbus neither complied with nor adhered to the terms of the letter of allotment.
One of the conditions is statutory payments, including stand premium and annual rent within 30 days.
These conditions were not met. Ohas even testified in court that he made one payment at the foot of the letter of allotment.
The judge after reviewing the totality of the evidence said a letter of allotment whose terms are not complied with within the requisite timeline becomes redundant.
This, he said, meant the certificate of title issued to Columbus was a nullity.
The judge ordered the Chief Lands Registrar to rectify the register in the lands office and cancel all unlawful entries on behalf of Michael Ohas and Columbus Ltd and indicate Wamunyoro as the lawful proprietor of the property.
The registrar was also ordered to cancel and nullify the title issued in favour of Columbus.
Regarding general damages for trespass, the judge said one can only plead trespass and get an order if there is demonstrated evidence that the party has entered and interfered with physical possession.
The case was filed in court in 2022 by Wamunyoro Investments.
Through lawyer Philip Nyachoti, the company accused former director of Physical Planning John Michael Ohas and his company Columbus of tampering with records at the lands office.
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 Columbus 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 Columbus is the registered owner.”
Court documents show the previous owners of the land 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 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 purchased the property for Sh24 million.
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.
Eighteen 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 2o16 said the property belonged to Wamunyoro.