Gachagua land case: Court stops transfer of Sh1.5b City property

 

A Lands Court has stopped the transfer or selling of the Sh1.5 billion property in which UDA running mate Rigathi Gachagua is claiming ownership.

Justice Oguttu Mboya certified the case filed by Wamunyoro Investments as urgent. Gachagua is the Managing Director of Wamunyoro.

The judge, after hearing the application, said the status quo should be maintained with respect to the disputed property.

"For clarity, the suit property shall not be alienated, sold or otherwise dealt with in any manner that may prejudice the current application," said the Judge.

Mboya directed that the application be served to Michael Ohas, his company, Colombus Two Thousand Limited and Chief Lands Registrar.

The case will be heard on July 26.

Gachagua, through his lawyer Philip Nyachoti, claims that the former Director of Physical planning John Michael Ohas has tampered with records at the land office in a bid to rob him of the property.

The property, he says, is charged to the 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 but Ohas and his company Colombus 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 Colombus is the registered owner,” says Gachagua 

Ohas has been accused of causing a parallel title to be irregularly and unlawfully issued to his company Colombus.

According to the court documents, the previous owners of the land situated in Nairobi were Karandi Farm limited, Peter Mbugua and Pauline Muringe.

The three were on April 30, 1999, jointly allotted the suit property for a sum of Sh554,000. The money was paid and a certificate was issued.

Gachagua was subsequently 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,” said Gachagua.

Gachagua then purchased the property for Sh24 million from the previous owners.

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 county government of Nairobi.

But in 2016, Ohas and his company lodged a formal complaint with the National Land Commission (NLC) against Wamunyoro with respect to 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 utilize the property.

18 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," reads an affidavit sworn by Gachagua.

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 by the government of Kenya that the previous vendors were the legal and rightful owners of the land.

The NLC after hearing from both parties held that the property was Wamunyoro’s. This decision was delivered in March 2016.

Wamunyoro argues that Colombus has never taken any steps to review or appeal the said decision.

“The decision is still in full force and therefore binding upon Ohas and his company,” says the MP.

“The illegal registration was procured by Ohas and his company long after ownership and legitimacy of the first title of the suit property had been conclusively considered and confirmed by the NLC,” he adds     BY THE STAR