Court rules Kimunya must face trial over illegal land transfer

Former Cabinet minister Amos Kimunya and a company to which he is accused of fraudulently transferring a 25-acre piece of land Wednesday suffered a blow when the High Court ruled that the criminal trial against him should proceed.

Justice Weldon Korir declined for the second time to stop Mr Kimunya’s prosecution.

Mr Kimunya first moved to court a year ago after filing two suits seeking to stop the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) from proceeding with the criminal trial against him.

Even though Mr Kimunya had argued that the offences which he is alleged to have committed are believed to have been done in 2005, he feared that charges against him in 2014 were malicious and discriminatory since there was a pending civil case in Nakuru on the land in question with Midlands Limited.

But the judge dismissed these claims as baseless.

“The civil case aimed at recovering the land for the company while the criminal suits intend is to reclaim back stolen public property hence there is no evidence of unfairness and unjust trial. I find that no case has been made and the request made is hereby dismissed,” ruled Mr Justice Korir.

DPP, EACC ACTED WITHIN THE LAW

The judge defended the DPP and the anti-grafts body, saying the two merely acted according to the law and carried out their duties in effecting the former minister’s prosecution even if it is nine years after the alleged crimes were committed.

The judge further dismissed claims that since former Agriculture minister Kipruto Kirwa was also aware of the land transfer and had been invited to a launch, EACC and DPP had acted selectively in pressing charges against Mr Kimunya alone.

He said that the land transfer decision was made unilaterally by Mr Kimunya, and that Midlands Chairman Junghae Wainaina and the director of Land Adjudication and Settlement, Ms Lilian Njenga, acted on his instructions and hence there was no discrimination.

The judge also ruled that by attempting to stop their trial from proceeding, the suits had been filed in a bid to protect Mr Kimunya, Mr Wainaina and Ms Njenga’s integrity and not the public interest.

Mr Wainaina Ms Njenga were charged on March 17, 2014 while Mr Kimunya was charged on July 8, 2014.

They had alleged that the trial is an interference with fair justice and was meant to threaten and coax the company to surrender what was lawfully allocated to it and wanted their criminal case stopped from proceeding.

It was claimed that Midland had been created by leaders and residents in Nyandarua as an agro-processing project meant to add value to agricultural produce in a bid to boost the livelihood of potato, carrots, cabbage and horticultural crop farmers.

UNDER-UTILISED LAND

It had been alleged that farmers requested the government on August 15, 2003 through Mr Kimunya to be allocated land in the Nyandarua Settlement Fund Trustee land which was under-utilised.

The Agriculture ministry used to train farmers on how to improve quantity and quality of produce in part of the settlement’s land which was 72 acres whilst four acres were used for pasture therefore the remaining was what was allocated for the project.

Mr Kimunya had announced at a public rally on April 30, 2004 that the farmers be allocated the land through the company which was effected and a deed was obtained. He was the Lands minister then.

The company subdivided the land into six units. However, Mr Wainaina was informed by EACC in June 2011 that it had placed a restriction on the original deed and that investigations were underway following fraudulent acquisition before being asked to surrender it in June 2013.

A case was then filed in Nakuru on February 19, 2013 but EACC later called him again asking him to appear in court on March 17, 2014 to be charged in connection with the land alongside the two where the complainant is Dr Romano Kiome, a former PS in the Agriculture ministry who is believed to be the registered proprietor of the disputed land.