BY SAM ALFAN.
The sale of ash1.5 billion land associated with deputy presidential hopeful Rigathi Gachahwa has been stopped.
Land and environment court judge Oguttu Mboya granted the orders in an application filed by Wamunyoro Investment Ltd.
The firm was directed to notify the respondents about the matter by serving them with the court papers.
John Michael Ohas and Columbus 2000 Ltd had sought to sell the land which Mr Gachahwa is also claiming.
“In the meantime, there be and is hereby granted an Order of Status Quo, over and in respect of LR. NO 209/12077, IR. NO.213652, pending Inter Partes Hearing of the Subject application. For clarity, the Suit Property shall not been alienated, sold or otherwise dealt with in any manner that may prejudice the substratuom of the Current application,” ruled Judge Mboya.
This is after Wamunyoro Investment ltd moved to court to reclaim a land in contention worth Sh1.5 billion which he says it was fraudulently transferred to another person.
Gachagua wants John Michael Ohas and Columbus Two Thousand ltd from selling or interfering with land located in Embakasi in Nairobi.
His company Wamunyoro Investment ltd alleges that Columbus Two Thousand ltd obtained a second title to the land in December 2019, yet he has a valid title document.
He wants the court to cancel the title issued to the rival company arguing that the takeover is illegal.
“The plaintiff is justifiably apprehensive that unless this application is certified urgent and heard immediately by this court and the orders sought herein granted , the 2nd defendant (Columbus Two Thousand ltd) may at any time now proceed to encroach, illegally takeover and deal with the suit property as it deems fit, dispose or transfer the suit property to unsuspecting third parties thereby complicating this dispute further to the detriment of the plaintiff thereby occassioning substantial damage and irreparable loss to the plaintiff hence the urgency of this application,” the application reads.
Through lawyer Philip Nyachoti, Gachagua said the land is currently charged as security at Equity Bank for a loan of Sh200 million.
He says Ohas took advantage of his official position at the ministry of lands as a director of Physical planning to allocate the suit property to Columbus Two Thousand ltd.
He said Ohas tampered with the official documents and records in respect of the title and generated the second title fraudulently.
“The said illegal registration of the second title on the suit property was done notwithstanding the fact that the ownership and legitimacy of the first title on the suit property in favour of the Wamunyoro Investment ltd had already been addressed and confirmed by the National Land Commission,” he said.
Nyachoti said Ohas has never taken any steps to review, set aside or appeal the decision issued by the commission. He claims that Ohas filed a case before the Environment and Land Court but withdrew the case to defeat his plans of filing a counter-claim.
The Mathira MP said the previous owners – Karandi Farm ltd, Peter Nduati Mbugua and Pauline Muringe, acquired the land in April 30, 1999.
He says the previous owners were jointly allotted the land for Sh554,000 and later sold it to Wamunyoro Investment ltd for Sh24 million.
“Upon unlawful transfer of the suit property to the plaintiff, the plaintiff became a bona fide purchaser for value and therefore the rightful, lawful and proper owner of the suit property. Accordingly, the plaintiff has always been in possession and occupation since then and has been paying in that regard land rates to the Nairobi County Government to date,” Gachagua says.
