Waititu to face contempt charges

Former Embakasi MP Ferdinand Waititu follows court proceedings in Nairobi on March 15, 2013. Photo/EMMA NZIOKA

Former Embakasi MP Ferdinand Waititu will stand trial for contempt of court in a land dispute case pitting him and Rangwe MP George Oner against a Nairobi businessman who alleges the pair swindled his property.

Mr Benson Muriithi moved to court under a certificate of urgency after Mr Waititu allegedly demolished structures at the disputed site despite a court order barring him from accessing it until the row is resolved.

In the suit, Mr Oner is alleged to have fraudulently transferred the property to Mr Waititu having been commissioned to undertake the subdivision and procurement of deeds for the 50 acres parcel of land situated off North Road, in Embakasi.

Mr Oner is listed as the first defendant in the case while Mr Waititu is an interested party, amongst four others.

On Monday, the High Court certified the hearing as urgent and ordered Mr Waititu to appear for the proceedings on July 22 in the Environment and Land Division.

“The urgency is actuated by the fact that the fourth interested party, Mr Ferdinand Waititu has blatantly and in a clandestine manner descended on the suit premises LR Number 27903/558 and unlawfully demolished standing structures therein and made away with the steel iron bars used to reinforce the structures...such acts on the part of the fourth interested party are in violation of the orders the court issued on February 25 and the subsequent status quo orders that followed which are well within his knowledge having been advertised in the media as directed by court,” John Khaminwa representing Mr Muriithi said.

The court was told Mr Waititu had brought two fresh lawyers on board who required “more time” to acquaint themselves with the suit details as he had discontinued an earlier the one he had engaged for the case.

A directive was issued that the new team be served within three days in preparation for the contempt hearing.

The court order had restrained Mr Oner and Mr Waititu agents, and middlemen from “interfering with the plaintiff’s possession and from trespassing on it.”

It had also barred any brokerage and further subdivision of the land following an injunction Mr Muriithi got in his first application against the politicians.

Mr Muriithi has sued in his capacity as the sole surviving administrator of the estate of the late Joseph Maingi Muriithi who owned the parcel of land.

He claims that upon confirmation of the grant of letters of administration, he was directed by the court to undertake a subdivision of the suit premises for distribution among his late father’s beneficiaries.

According to suit documents in court, Mr Oner was commissioned to undertake the subdivision and procure deed plans to the respective 590 sub plots that emanated from the exercise.

He claims that after he fell sick in 2008 and was hospitalised till September 2011, Mr Oner fraudulently transferred part of the property to unknown people including Mr Waititu “without his consent.”