Journalist wants MPs to kick Swazuri out of office

Mr Mugo Njeru before the National Assembly’s Lands Committee, which is investigating National Land Commission boss Muhammad Swazuri over alleged corruption. PHOTO | JEFF ANGOTE | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • The former Nation Media Group journalist Mr Mugo Njeru said he could only afford Sh1 million, which he took to Mombasa around Christmas in 2015.
  • Mr Mugo Njeru was told to pay Charo Sh25 million in two days but refused.

A former journalist wants Members of Parliament to initiate the removal from office of National Land Commission (NLC) chairman Muhammad Swazuri for allegedly receiving a Sh1 million bribe from him.

Mr Mugo Njeru, however, downplayed the suggestion that it was a bribe, telling members of the National Assembly’s Lands Committee that he was coerced into the deal.

He told the MPs that, from his experience, bribery of NLC commissioners and staff by landowners eyeing compensation for the land they gave up for the standard gauge railway (SGR) appeared common.

But when he met the committee on Tuesday afternoon, Swazuri said: “I have seen this petition for the first time now.

“I can’t rush to respond to it. It is not possible to respond to it now.”

The NLC boss, who looked exhausted, said he had arrived back in the country on Monday night.  

“A technical error occurred and I had to spend 53 hours travelling back from the US,” said Prof Swazuri. “I also contracted pneumonia; I have just come from the hospital.”

MEET COMMITTEE

He was nonetheless ordered to meet the committee at 10 am Wednesday despite pleas by his lawyer, Prof Tom Ojienda, for five days to study the petition.

Mr Njeru said he was the co-owner of two parcels of land near Mombasa Road with a combined value of Sh129 million and it was in the case of the first parcel, worth Sh86 million, that Prof Swazuri first demanded a bribe.

Daimler Limited, a company in which he was a director along with his wife, owned the land but a dispute had arisen after Bahkresa Grain Millers Limited also claimed ownership.

It was after meeting a committee of the NLC looking into the claims that he was approached by Prof Swazuri’s henchman and told to take Sh1.2 million to him in Mombasa.

The former Nation Media Group journalist said he could only afford Sh1 million, which he took to Mombasa around Christmas in 2015. He was picked up at the airport by a Badhili Elijah Yaa alias Charo, whom he said was Prof Swazuri’s henchman.

TAKE MONEY TO NYALI

They would refer to Prof Swazuri as “Mzee”, said Mr Njeru.

“When we finished taking tea, Mzee came alone,” said Mr Njeru. “We sat.

“I told him, ‘Ile mbuzi nimekuja nayo’ (I have brought along the goat — euphemism for a bribe). He told me, ‘Patia Charo; atajua vile ataniletea’ (Give it to Charo; he knows how he will bring it to me).”

He said Charo told him he was told to take the money to Nyali.

National Land Commission (NLC) Chairman Muhammad Swazuri has ordered the United Arab Emirates to return to the Kenya Railways pension scheme a piece of land in Nairobi’s Upper Hill area that former President Daniel arap Moi gave its ruler. PHOTO | FILE

Mr Njeru said that Prof Swazuri was in the company of a woman, who he was told is the chairman’s first wife.

He was told the money would be shared amongst the commissioners and staff on the claims committee.

PART WITH MONEY
“A number of people who have received compensation have had to part with some money,” Mr Njeru told the MPs. “I was not bribing Dr Swazuri; I was responding to a call of duress.

“I was told, ‘Bring and we’ll pay you tomorrow’. I did a bit of mathematics and saw I would get some money.”

Mr Njeru said he had records of text messages between him and Charo and backed his petition with a volume of documents.

Despite losing the Sh1 million, Mr Njeru would last year be dragged into a second attempt at coercion, this time over a Sh43 million parcel owned by his wife Editor Irima Mugo. The SGR would pass on this land as well and he was to be compensated.

But then, Dasahe Investments Limited, which had paid Sh500,000 as deposit but reneged on a sale seven years earlier, had staked a claim to the land. Dasahe had failed to pay the balance in 90 days as agreed.

MEET AT HIS OFFICE

Mr Njeru said Prof Swazuri called him through his secretary and asked to meet him at his office, where he met him alongside then-NLC director of legal affairs Brian Ikol.

He was told to pay Charo Sh25 million in two days but refused. After that, he met Dasahe director David Some in the chairman’s office and was told he would get the money and then give some to the company. From the Sh43 million, he would get Sh8 million and then pay Dasahe Sh5 million.

“We realised we were in a predicament,” Mr Njeru said. “We had lost Sh86 million to another party and we were now about to lose to another one.”

Mr Njeru said when the NLC determined last month that the land belonged to Dasahe, meaning he and his wife would not get a cent, he successfully blocked the payment by going to court and obtaining an order.