- Former Kiambu Governor William Kabogo has lost ownership of a prime land in Nairobi
- According to the High Court, Kabogo had forged documents to show ownership
- Kabogo was ordered to give back the Sh3b land and pay owner Sh100m in damages
- The land is situated along Mvuli Road in Westlands, Nairobi.
A former governor has been ordered to surrender a city prime property worth Sh3.5 billion and compensate a businessman Sh100 million.
Former Kiambu Governor William Kabogo lost ownership of the land in Nairobi after the High Court ruled that he had forged documents.
Consequently, High Court judge Elijah Abaga ordered Kabogo to pay Aster Holdings Director Nayan Patel, the legitimate owner of the 7.5-acre land, Sh100 million for illegal possession and trespass, bringing to an end a 10-year tussle for the plot.
The land is situated along Mvuli Road in Westlands, Nairobi.
Mr Patel, through his company Aster Holdings Limited, in 2010 sued Kabogo’s firm, Caroget Investment Limited, the City Council of Nairobi (now City County), the Commissioner of Lands, the Attorney General, and the Registrar of Titles.
Permanent injunction
In a ruling delivered on Tuesday evening, Justice Abaga ordered Kabogo and City Hall to deliver vacant possession of the land to Patel while issuing a permanent injunction to the Registrar of Titles from accepting, acting upon, or effecting any sale, lease, charge transfer, or alienation and/or dealing in any manner whatsoever with the land.
“A declaration is hereby given that Caroget Investment Limited unlawfully and illegally occupied and took possession of the suit property and these acts amount to trespass and that Aster is entitled to the sole possession thereof.
An award of Sh100,000,000 general damages to be paid by Caroget Investments,” the judge declared in a 25-page ruling.
City Hall and Kabogo have also been ordered to meet the cost of the suit estimated at Sh17 million.
City Hall
The former governor appeared before Justice Abaga in May this year and defended himself, saying he had applied for allocation of the land in 2007, and that it was accepted by City Hall, which granted him a 99-year lease.
He then sought to sell the land to White Horse Investments Limited, but the transfer could not be registered after former commissioner of lands Zablon Mabea confiscated his documents and shredded them.
Mr Mabea cancelled the title, prompting Kabogo to move to the High Court, which quashed the decision in 2009 and ordered that he be given a provisional title.
In his determination, the judge said that although Kabogo claimed to have applied for the allocation in 2007, documents made available in court show that the alleged allotment was done in 2006.
City Hall transferred the suit property to Caroget on May 11, 2007, which took possession after chasing away guards employed by Aster Holdings.
This forced Patel to lodge a complaint with the CID and the anti-corruption agency, which prompted City Hall to write to the two agencies advising that the commissioner of lands had found out that the deed plan used by Kabogo was fake and recommended the revocation of his documents.
“City Hall is the one which obtained the allocation of the suit property which was registered in its name before it was transferred to Caroget. City Hall has since disowned the title and recommended its revocation.
Though City Hall has been pretending to be innocent in the whole scheme, it has not come out clearly on the position it has taken in the matter.
In the first suit, City Hall claims to own the land. In its evidence in court, it completely changed the story and indicated the plot belongs to Aster Holdings,” the judge observed.
The businessman had told the court that Aster Holdings bought the land from Nairobi Homes in 1997 and applied for extension of lease on July 1, 2001.
He said his firm enjoyed peaceful possession of the land measuring 3.069 hectares (approximately 7.5 acres) until May 28, 2007, when unknown people invaded the property, demolished structures, and erected a new fence.
No charges
The case was reported to the Nairobi CID office, which investigated it and recommended the prosecution of the directors of Caroget, a former director of legal affairs at City Hall, Mary Ng’eth, and a former deputy director of survey, Polly Gitimu. However, no one was charged.
The case had earlier experienced pitfalls in 2012 after unknown people threatened the then High Court judge, Philomena Mwilu, who disqualified herself from the case. Mwilu is now the Deputy Chief Justice.
According to documents in court, Ms Ngethe rescinded her request to Survey of Kenya to issue a deed plan in favour of Caroget on the disputed land on clams that it was fraudulent.
Further scrutiny
“This is a further letter to the one dated 4/06/07. After further scrutiny, we have established that the council did request Survey of Kenya’s vide letter dated 9th December, 2006, to issue a deed plan but in the process due process was not followed.
This anomaly has since been rectified. We therefore urge you to ignore the above letter,” Ng’ethe wrote to then commissioner of lands Judy M. Okungu. Mrs Okungu, who served from 2003 to 2007, said she had received a letter from City Hall informing her the deed plan used to issue the title deed to Caroget was fake.
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