Firms, players salivate over City Cabanas land

 

A battle is taking shape over land ownership of the famous City Cabanas as private firms and individuals attempt to go after it.

The state is acquiring land for the Nairobi Expressway and owners will be compensated.

However, the chief registrar indicated to the Ministry of Lands and Physical Planning the land belongs to Rosalie Njeri Macharia. This was during the verification process. 

Competing ownership claims come from several private companies. 

In claiming ownership, it has been revealed that individuals have purported to subdivide the land and acquire titles for subplots to the exclusion of the owners.

The chief registrar confirms the land has not been subdivided and says the new titles do not form part of the official records.

Investigators are probing how some titles purported to be for the land are captured in the land information management system as being situated in Machakos county and in favour of a third party.

City Cabanas has been an iconic landmark along Nairobi's Mombasa Road. 

The hotel is located at the junction of the Nairobi-Mombasa highway and Airport North Road.

For more than 30 years, City Cabanas has provided uninterrupted hospitality and entertainment.

The announcement by the government that it was acquiring the land for the road expansion has attracted the attention of more players.

The intended compulsory land acquisition for the Nairobi Expressway has seen government pay millions of shillings as compensation. Compensation for the Cabanas land has, however, been delayed as multiple players claim ownership. 

In January, one Simon Nyamanya who had allegedly barred the National Land Commission from compensating Roseline Njeri Sh2.6 billion for the land was freed on a Sh3 million bond or a cash bail of Sh1 million.

He was charged with three fraud-related counts. He denied wrongdoing.

In the first count, Nyamanya was accused of allegedly using a forged land title to obtain a court order on November 24, 2020.

The order barred the NLC from paying compensation to Njeri, said by the registrar to be the owner. 

In the second count, Nyamanya was accused of lodging the document with the  NLC to stop payment of the compensation to Njeri.

In the third count, he was accused of conspiring to defraud the process of compulsory acquisition of the parcel by pretending to be the owner.  BY THE STAR