MPs Shaban, Abdalla conned in Nairobi land deal

A Cabinet minister and a nominated MP lost Sh2 million to an agent who had promised to sell them prime land.

Gender and Children Affairs minister Naomi Shaban and nominated MP Amina Abdalla told a Nairobi court that the thought of owning land in Karen, Nairobi at half of the market price made them part with the cash without any written agreement.

The two were testifying in a case in which Ms Nancy Kavinya Kioko is charged with defrauding them of Sh2 million by pretending that she was in a position to sell them a piece of land in Karen.

The saga started in June 2008 when Ms Abdalla approached a Nairobi councillor to help her find a suitable plot in Karen.

Karen visit

It was then that she was introduced to the accused, who according to them, was a well-known land broker in Karen.

“I then invited the suspect to Parliament Buildings where we discussed the issue and she told me that there were several parcels of land for sale at Karen,” Ms Abdalla told the court.

When they reached the location, Ms Abdalla approved of it since it is near the Vice-President’s residence and other MPs had also acquired plots at the same location.

She then agreed to buy the plot next to the VP’s compound at Sh3 million. However, the deal did not go through after it emerged that registration of the land was taking too long.

It was then that she was shown two other parcels behind the Lang’ata Military Barracks which were going for Sh4 million each. She agreed to buy the alternative land to put up houses.

The nominated MP said she was shocked the accused agreed to sell the large chunks of land at such a low price. She couldn’t wait to finish the transactions and start construction.

“The deal was so good. I could not believe the property was going at half the market price. If I had acquired it then, it will be worth four times the buying price,” said Ms Abdalla.

Since the seller only had allotment letters and required money to process title deeds, she requested the nominated MP to pay her a portion of the buying price which would be deducted when the transaction was completed.

Ms Abdalla paid her Sh1 million as down payment and then told Dr Shaban of the lucrative deal. The minister agreed to pay Sh1 million to acquire another parcel near Ms Abdalla’s. The seller issued the MPs with two title deeds.

But after sometime, they received a call from the councillor informing them that the parcels of land were registered under another person’s name.

Dr Shaban told the court that she immediately booked an appointment with the commissioner of lands to verify the authenticity of the documents.

“The document was fake as the land belongs to a different individual,” said Dr Shaban. When the Taveta MP summoned Ms Kioko to her office and demanded a refund, Ms Kioko wrote her a post-dated cheque that bounced.

The case was adjourned to March 26 after the prosecution requested for more time to substitute the charges against Ms Kioko.