A long-standing dispute over the ownership of a 3,000-acre piece of land in Makueni County has taken a new twist after police arrested and charged the son of former Chief of Defence Forces Joseph Ndolo.
The dispute over the ranch near Sultan Hamud town along the Nairobi-Mombasa highway pits the Ndolo family and 84 people, including Court of Appeal President Justice Daniel Musinga.
Ndolo’s son, Andrew Ndola Ndolo, is now fighting to exonerate himself from accusations of robbery with violence, burglary and malicious damage to private property after he allegedly demolished a homestead in the disputed land without a court order.
Ndolo’s family has moved to the Supreme Court in the main ownership case seeking to evict Justice Musinga and others who include prominent and wealthy personalities.
In the new case, Mr Ndolo denied all the 12 criminal charges at Kilungu Law Courts relating to the alleged raid on one of the squatter’s homestead in July last year.
The trial, which was set to begin yesterday, was postponed after defence lawyers said they had not been supplied with witness statements by the prosecution. Senior Magistrate Godfrey Okwengu ordered that the accused be furnished with statements and set July 4 as the new hearing date.
“The defence, having not been supplied with all witness statements, their application for an adjournment is hereby allowed. The prosecution should supply all witness statements and any other documents together with an inventory to the defence,” Mr Okwengu ruled.
Mr Ndolo, a businessman in Nairobi, is staring at a long jail term for allegedly taking the law into his own hands, if police prove the assault, robbery with violence, burglary, stealing, malicious damage to property and causing disturbance accusations arising from the raid on July 2 and July 21 last year.
Hired goons
The charges state that Mr Ndolo was accompanied by hired goons during the two raids and did not have an eviction order from the court.
“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,” read the first of the 12 charges.
Seven witnesses are lined up by the prosecution to testify against Mr Ndolo, with numerous photos that depict the damage visited upon the homestead during the raid, also provided.
He is also accused of damaging permanent houses and assorted household items valued at Sh1,140,000 and Sh2,710,000 belonging to Mr Ngile and one of his neighbours Chris Nzomo Ngila, respectively.
Mr Ndolo 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. He is also accused of assaulting and injuring Kennedy Mutua Kamuya, Joseph Munganya Masika and Timothy Musyoka Maitha.
Since Ndolo 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. BY DAILY NATION