State denies taking widow’s Sh1bn land

A ministry of Lands official has denied claims that the State acquired a widow’s plot valued at nearly Sh1 billion, and which is the subject of a criminal case against close allies of former President Daniel arap Moi.

Mr Paul Mwangi said there are no records to show purported purchase or acquisition of the Sh954 million land that Ms Anne Kimitei Nyogio, 90, says administrators in the Kanu regime grabbed from her.

He told a trial court in which former Kenya Pipeline Company Managing Director Ezekiel Komen, former Eldoret District Commissioner Benjamin Rotich, a Lands Registrar at the time, Ms Agnes Kuria, and others, are charged with defrauding the widow of the 477 acres in Uasin Gishu, by pretending that the government had acquired it.

“Some time around July 2012, I received a letter from the CID requesting me to give a report on LR 9723 whose title number is 15449 Sogoit River Farm,” said the witness.

Mr Mwangi said he was required to indicate if the government bought the land in 1980 or thereafter, and further state the purpose for the acquisition.

“I was required to state whether there was a settlement scheme set up by the government on that land and also give correspondence to confirm if valuation was done,” he said.

Mr Mwangi said he was also asked to provide certified copies of minutes of a committee meeting, which had purportedly recommended the settlement on the land.

NO SUCH SETTLEMENT SCHEME

“I responded after checking my records to find out whether there was indeed such a settlement scheme, but did not find any,” he said.

Mr Mwangi said after failing to trace any records he replied: “The ministry of Lands has no such record nor on establishment of a settlement.”
“I recommended that they carry out a further search. We even tried the provincial lands office in Nakuru in vain,” said the witness.

Mr Mwangi said he was convinced the said settlement scheme did not exist.

“I looked at all titles and records at the Lands Registry and there was none showing that the parcel belonged to the government,” he said.

In the case, Ms Kuria, a former Lands boss at Ardhi House in Nairobi faces two more counts of abuse of office.

She is accused of arbitrarily issuing instructions on behalf of the Chief Land Registrar to the District Land Registrar in Eldoret to list the other accused as the trustees.

The accused denied  that on diverse dates between March 13, 1985 and September 25, 2009 in Eldoret, they conspired to defraud Ms Nyogio.

The District Land Registrar at the time, Mr Tom Chepkwesi,  two land officials, Mr Erick Kibiwott Tarus and Mr Benjamin Kipkorir Kuto, are also charged in the long-standing dispute.

The accused are out on cash bails of Sh2 million each.