John Ohas, 81, on Wednesday told Environment and Land Court judge Ogutu Mboya that he was allocated the parcel by the former President in 1994.
Ohas, who is a former director of physical planning at the Lands ministry, said the land was registered in his name and due process followed, including allotment, survey and issuing of a title deed.
He said Moi signed his land ownership documents.
Gachagua, through his company Wamunyoro Investment Limited, is laying claim to the prime property.
Ohas, who is the director of Columbus Two Thousand Limited, told the court he was well conversant with the registration of new grants and that the valuation, letter of allotment and approval for the suit property LR No. 209/12077 off Mombasa Road were genuine.
He was sued by Gachagua through Wamunyoro Investment Limited on claims that during his tenure at the Lands ministry, Ohas tampered with land office records to deprive the DP of his land.
Gachagua claims that Ohas caused a parallel title to be issued to his company Colombus in an irregular and unlawful manner.
"Wamunyoro has always been the legal owner of the disputed property, but Ohas and his company Colombus Two Thousand purposefully tampered with the records at the lands office in December 2019 so that any official search on the property now indicates that Colombus is the registered owner,” the DP avers in his affidavits.
Ohas, however, insists his 1994 allotment letter was not cancelled and that payment from Columbus was accepted and Sh50,000 was made and a further Sh814,550.00 paid via cheque No. 150995 and file No. 157048 dated May 16, 1996.
He said the parcel was also valued by the director of valuation, who gave the stand premium payable and annual rent.
He said the land's premium stood at Sh692,000.00 and an annual rent of Sh138,400.00 with a capital value of Sh3,460,000.
"Having accepted the allotment, the process for allocation was complete, giving way to survey of the parcel and registration of the interest."
He told the court there was no withdrawal letter from the commissioner of lands nor re-gazettement for reallocation or cancellation of the first allocation for the plot.
Ohas told the court that claims the land's allotment to him was cancelled were false because he made the necessary payments.
His said the allotment of the land to his company originated from the Government Printer, and that the one made to Karandi Farm Limited was forged because it did not indicate where it originated from, author and the time it was printed.
It was also his contention that the purported allocation to Karandi Farm Limited was not based on any authority or proper valuation since if the property was valued as purported, the value of the plot in 1999 could easily be higher than it was in 1994.
He said payment by any other persons and their receipts don't exist in the Ministry of Lands records.
It was his testimony that the allocation to Columbus duly proceeded for survey consistently with the provisions of the law.
He said his title deed was issued on January 25, 1995.
"Having manipulated the record, in an attempt to sanitise a fraudulent process and since Karandi Farm could not demonstrate proper record, they entered into a scheme to clean up their fraud by purporting that the file was lost," Ohas had said in his affidavit.
Ohas claims the property was purportedly transferred to Wamunyoro Investment Limited on June 15, 2012 at a consideration of Sh24 million under the daybook number 1386, which was a fraud.
"The directors of Karandi Farm Limited are listed as Rigathi Gachagua and Dorcas Gachagua and, of course, Peter Nduati and Pauline Mulinge, who were just used as a ladder to assist in the land transfer from Karandi to Wamunyoro, whose directors are Gachagua and Dorcas. In this case, the vendor and purchaser are the same," he said.
