How land meant for a market was grabbed in South B
A businessman who in 1999 bought a grabbed government land in Nairobi’s South B has been given 45 days to vacate the property.
George Kimani Njuki is said to have bought the government house from a Ministry of Lands Official and his wife through their private company, Gefrea Agencies.
The couple, George Fred Onyango (deceased) and Valeria Akuku, together with their business associate Sammy Musila, sold the property to Njuki, the current owner, who has occupied the property over the years.
The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission is now in the process of executing orders issued by the Environment and Land Court in Nairobi revoking the title.
“The court nullified the title (L.R. No. 209/14216-Nairobi) to the Government House and its accompanying land, which had been fraudulently allocated to the couple and their business partner,” the court ruled.
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In the court ruling, Njuki was ordered to vacate the property within 45 days failure to which EACC will be at liberty to evict him.
Former Commissioner of Lands Sammy Mwaita who facilitated the fraudulent transactions was ordered to pay all the costs of the suits.
The Court further issued a permanent injunction restraining Njuki, his servants, tenants and agents from any further trespass or dealings in the property, except by way of surrender to the Government.
The latest land saga in South B comes months after another long protracted dispute over the ownership of L.R. No. 209/12612, situated at the heart of South B Shopping Centre, Makuti area.
In October 2023, the piece of land claimed to have been grabbed by a private developer was declared a public facility.
This is after Nairobi’s Urban Planning department declared that the contested land, belongs to the community.
During a Planning Committee meeting, Urban Planning and Built Environment county executive Stephen Mwangi revealed that the documents that had been produced by the private developer claiming the land belonged to them, were fake.
“This happened when some of us were not in office and we couldn’t trace some documents but according to what we have we are in agreement that it belongs to the public I will therefore hand over the matter to the inspectorate team to repossess it back to the county,” Mwangi said.
The CEC highlighted that the fake documents indicated that they were signed by a sitting mayor in 2014 whereas in 2014 devolution had commenced and Nairobi had a governor in office.
The case went to the committee after Nairobi South Assembly Member Waithera Chege, in August 2023, effectively presented her petition to County Speaker Kennedy Ng’ondi, paving the way for an official investigation into the matter by the Nairobi County Assembly Committee.
The South B legislator said the land had been set aside for the establishment of a modern market in accordance with Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja’s manifesto.