Surveyor denies negligence in land sale drawing Ruto in suit

The surveyor who sub-divided the Uasin Gishu land belonging to a post-election violence victim, and which was irregularly sold to Deputy President-elect William Ruto on Thursday denied being negligent in the transaction.

Mr Patrick Opiyo Adera, who was a Ministry of Lands surveyor, said that a search indicated that the land belonged to Ms Dorothy Yator.

Testifying in court, Mr Adera rejected a document that he had presented in court showing that the land belonged to Mr Adrian Gilbert Muteshi.

He noted that the land belonged to Ms Yator at the time he was instructed to sub-divide it. Ms Yator engaged his services in June 2007 through her husband, he said.

In the case, Mr Muteshi accuses Mr Ruto of being part of a scheme to deprive of him of the land, which he says he fled from during the 2008 post-election violence.

Mr Ruto denies the allegation and says that he was cheated into buying the land.

The Deputy President-elect offered to leave the property last year, but he disagreed with Mr Muteshi’s demands for compensation, causing the court to take the suit to trial.

Mr Muteshi alleges that Mr Ruto met two men in his office when he was minister for Agriculture, where the three hatched a plot to grab the land.

Mr Ruto’s chief witness, Hosea Ruto, said the two men represented themselves as agents of Ms Yator and her husband and provided titles indicating that she held six titles of the land.

Ms Yator, who is also a defendant in the case, disowned the transaction and alleged that her signatures and photographs were forged and used to transfer the land to Mr Ruto.

Giving her evidence in court last month, she blamed Mr Ruto for the alleged forgeries.

She said that a professional document examiner she engaged confirmed the signatures on copies of documents used in the transaction were forgeries.

The document examiner will appear in court on March 20 to testify.