BY SAM ALFAN.
Director of Criminal Investigations (DCI) George Kinoti has urged the High Court to dismiss a case filed by businessman Jimmy Wanjigi and his wife Irene Nzisa, seeking to stop their prosecution over land fraud.
Through Chief Inspector Patrick Kayemba, the DCI boss he has the mandate to protect the right to own property.
He aadds that court cannot stop an administrative statutory or a constitutional body from discharging its mandate unless there is a clear violation of the law or actions are ultra vires which has not been demonstrated in the case.
DCI adds that Wanjigi portrays megalomaniac illusions of grandeur by purporting to be above the law and therefore entitled to harrass, intimidate and prevent public institutions or officials from executing their constitutional and statutory mandate.
He said his decision to charge Wanjigi and his wife was informed by the need to protect the rightful owner of a land in Westalnds, whose ownership is contested.
“These constitutional rights are not exclusive to Wanjigi and his wife to an extent that they want to enjoy them at the expense of other Kenyans,” the DCI boss told the court.
It is his argument that he and the DPP Noordin Haji have not violated any of Wanjigi’s rights and the allegations as set out in the petition are not backed by any iota of evidence.
Kinoti says the case is frivolous, vexatious and abuse of the court process and should be struck out with costs.
Documents filed in court by the DCI says that on March 19,2019, Kenroid ltd launched a complaint with the DCI through their lawyer Madhav Bhalla of M/s Taibjee & Bhalla advocates.
He says that in the course of transaction, Kenroid ltd noticed that there were two companies trading under same name of Horizon Hills ltd, but with different directors.
Kenroid ltd later notified Wanjigis about the existence of the two companies with similar name.
They allegedly opted to change the name of the company from Horizon Hills ltd to Aureum ltd and pursuant to the said transaction, Kenroid ltd paid Sh56 million to Wanjigi and his wife.
But during the course of the transaction, the authenticity of the title and ownership of the property came came into question and Kenroid ltd requested the DCI to investigate the matter.
The officer dismissed claims by wanjigi that he is the beneficial shareholder of Horizon Hills ltd, since records from registrar of companies does not show them as directors of Horizon Hills ltd.
“Jimmy Wanjigi knowingly and with intent to deceive wrote a letter dated March 22,2010 as a beneficial shareholder of Horizon Hills ltd purporting to appoint one Kairo Thuo as a” legal nominee and trustee” to transact on his behalf in the acquisition of Horizon Hills,” the investigator said.
Kayemba said Thuo vehemently refuted the claims through an affidavit.
He further dismissed Wanjigi’s claim that he filed a case before Environment and Land court in 2019 is false and deliberate attempt to mislead the court.
The police say the case was filled by Kenroid ltd against Aureum ltd and eight others.
Chief Inspector Kayemba further said investigations established that indeed it was Wanjigi who was the suspect in view of overwhelming facts that he had misdirected, misinformed and gave information to the DCI posing as a complainant with an intent to defraud Kenroid ltd.
He further adds that upon investigations, DCI established that Wanjigi and his wife Irene jointly with others had committed conspiracy to commit felony, forgery of a deed plans, forgery of grant, procuring execution of a company by false pretense, uttering false document with intent to defraud and obtaining money by falsely pretence.
The investigation file was forwarded to Haji on December 10, 2021 and on January 5, 2022 the DPP agreed with DCI and approved the charges.
At Wanjigi’s offices, they found who introduced himself as Josphat Onyiego Mugendi and the officers introduced themselves and requested him to inform Wanjigi he was required by the officers outside the premises. They later found Mugendi was a bodyguard and refused to tell Wanjigi about their presence.
The officer adds that they persuaded Wanjigi for 18hours to cooperate and assist in the investigations but he refused to cooperate, turned violent, abusive and incited members of the public through telephone calls, sending videos clips of the presence of officers calling hired goons and even giving media interviews while holed up in the said premise.
In the courss of engaging the businessman, detectives noted Mugendi was armed and was likely to commit a felony, true to the suspicion the employee was found to be in possession of an illegal firearm Glock Pistol and fifteen rounds of 9mm ammunition.
Upon further interrogation, Mugendi confessed that he was not a licensed firearm holder and he is a former police officer who Wanjigi employed him as bodyguard and issued him with firearm.
“That based on reasonable apprehension, following disarming of the bodyguard off the illegal firearm and with knowledge that Wanjigi had several other illegal firearms that include military grade mostly used with special forces the officers were apprehensive and cautious of any sudden attack. Consequently the DCI officers gained ingress and apprehended Wanjigi and placed him in custody for arraignment in court as commanded by the court “, adds CI Kayemba.
