Bishop Mark Kariuki of Deliverance Church shakeshand with President Uhuru Kenyatta during breakfasts prayers.(FILE PHOTO).
BY THOMAS KARIUKI.
Bishop Mark Kariuki, his counterparts Bishop John B Masinde and Bishop George Gichana from the Deliverance Church want the court to order the lands office to give them a 29 acre land they bought in Juja.
The Bishops purchased the said land from Baliga Limited-19 acres and Bellina Wachuka Gatonye-10 acres.
They accuse the Chief Land Registrar in Thika of failing, delaying and or neglecting to provide green cards to them despite futile pleas to do so.
“Any enquiries to the respondent by the applicants have been met with empty promises and rhetoric which leaves the applicants with anxiety as to whether their property has been indeed illegally transferred to other people,” the Bishops say.
Before the said purchase, Bishop Mark Kariuki says, they conducted a search in respect to the ownership of the parcels from the Thika registry and the properties showed they belonged to Beliga and Bellina Wachuka Gatonye respectively.
Another owner, New Age Developers Construction Co. LTD surfaced, producing an official search from the same office in Thika showing that the land belongs to them.
This made the Bishops to seek redress from the same office in Thika which they say has failed to provide the much needed information to ascertain who the real owners of the parcel are.
Bishop Mark Kariuki says that upon signing the sale agreement, they paid a deposit of Sh6.5 million and had the suit property which was vacant pointed out to them.
Pursuant to the terms of agreement, they also paid the vendor the balance of the purchase price of about 7.275 million save for the sum of Sh500, 000 which they agreed was payable on completion date.
The vendor’s advocates started the process of transfer and they were allowed to take immediate vacant possession of the property and start developing it.
On January 2015, when the bishops went to develop their land, they met a hostile reception who told them that the land did not belong to them.
By then they had already placed building materials and employed security to Mann the property ready to start to erect a perimeter wall around the parcel.
They reported the matter to the police at Juja where the people denying them access to the land were asked to produce title documents. They were also advised to avoid any ugly scenes and that none of the parties should develop the suit premise until the ownership dispute is resolved.
“We have written to the Chief Land Registrar so many times besides the physical visits to his offices urging him to give us the aforesaid green card. The interested party has equally been at the state office for the same information and also written to the National Land Commission,”
“Despite demand, the respondent has failed, delayed, neglected and/or refused to comply with his statutory duty to provide me with the requested information and records,” Bishop Mark says.
In a brief response to the suit, the registrar says that the Bishops’ suit should be dismissed because they have filed it in the wrong division of the court.
The three Bishops want an order issued against the respondent to produce the documents required so as to fully solve the puzzle of ownership of the parcel.
Proceedings resume on June 7.
