How Nairobi family ended up having their house in Westlands demolished
A 2015 move by suspected fraudsters to halt the issuance of a land rate receipt to Mr Niraj Shah, 54, followed by a debt receipt of Sh30 million, six years later, triggered a series of events leading to the demolition of a residential house along School Lane in Westlands, Nairobi County, on Friday last week.
Investigations by the Nairobi News have revealed that the scheme to kick out Mr Shah, a Kenyan of British origin and his wife Ms Avani, a Kenyan, involved top police officers within Nairobi before the demolition took place.
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On Wednesday last week, just two days before the unlawful demolition, three top police officers driving in a police land cruiser of registration number GKB 159W went to the premises in a posh neighborhood and handed over a court order that plans were underway to have the house demolished.
Nairobi News cannot reveal their identities for legal reasons and the sensitivity of the matter which is now being investigated by detectives attached to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), Land Fraud Unit (LFU).
Early last week, it was established that goons who were targeting Mr Shah’s property went to a different home armed with tools of work only to realise that they were almost demolishing a different building that is located in the same neighborhood.
On the day when the demolition took place, Ms Avani was at home when she heard noise from one of the gates leading to her compound. The property along School Lane has two gates.
“I heard a lot of noise from the gate and I was sure that it was a crowd of people. But it was hard for me to know exactly what was happening and I could not see the guard,” she said.
The guard was assaulted and badly injured on the face during the altercation that left his left eye bandaged.
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Moments later, Ms Avani said that she saw several young men jumping into the compound from a neighbour’s home as others made their way through one of the gates.
Later, an auctioneer who had accompanied the rowdy youth walked straight to her and gave orders that she had only 30 minutes to remove all her items from the house as they wanted to demolish it.
“I started by calling my husband who took more than 45 minutes to arrive here and even the process of getting out my stuff was not complete since the youth were all over the place,” she said.
Nairobi News can authoritatively report that the auctioneer who is based in the city is Mr Zack Baraza, who contested the Bungoma County Governorship seat in August.
On Wednesday, Mr Baraza, confirmed that indeed his auction firm identified as Siuma Auctioneers was behind the auction before he hanged up after requesting to call back later, which he never did.
“Yes, we were hired to carry out the eviction by one of our clients. I’m in the middle of something, let me call back later,” said Mr Baraza when contacted by Nairobi News.
It is worth noting that the same auctioneering company two years ago was marred in controversy after it was hired by former Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero to evict Mr Jomo Gecaga who is former President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Personal Assistant from his apartment over rent arrears.
Mr Shah now says that they are planning to move to court over the eviction which he termed to be illegal and that he had already engaged with the British High Commission over the matter.
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The father of four faulted the auctioneering company for destroying property with no proper documentation.
On Wednesday the couple showed journalists the remains of what once used to be their home. As he was doing so, police officers were busy combing the area.
“This property is owned by my late father, I don’t owe anyone cash and I have nothing to do with the property eviction notice. We are still wondering who are these people who want us out of what we legally own,” he said.
According to Mr Shah, when his father passed on, the mother was left to manage the property but later decided to hand it over to him and the succession process was already ongoing.
Under the Kenyan law, succession is one of the most common ways through which one can acquire and own land. It is usually pegged on the tradition to inherit property.
In Mr Shah’s case, they kicked off the process following the death of his father in 2010. The process of succession in this case kicked off years later.
According to lawyer Brian Mutoro most people ignore the process as it is a norm as the inheritors usually consider the process of legal land succession to be tedious, complex, inaccessible and expensive.
“When this happens, the owners of the land are left without legal and documented land. This is the first step where they end up being exposed to land disputes that at times can lead to disinheritance,” said Mr Mutoro.
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Documents in our possession show that Mr Shah’s troubles started in 2015 when he wanted to pay land rates but could not be issued an invoice which has never happened since 1978.
When he personally went to the Nairobi County Lands office, he was shocked to learn that his property was listed under the names of two unknown individuals.
“They told me that they could not tell who was the sole owner of the property and it is then that I started the process of reconstruction of the documents I had of the land,” he said.
The succession process is yet to end as they have to show that indeed the father passed away in 2010 before they can get the ownership.
In 2016, he started receiving suspicious visitors who could arrive at the gate asking questions on ownership of the land. This lasted for three years.
In 2019, he filed a lawsuit as he was worried that someone was out to defraud him of what he believed was fully owned by him.
In 2021, they received a land rate fee arrear notice indicating they owed the Nairobi City County Sh30 million. It is at this point that an alarmed Mr Shah immediately wrote to the now defunct Nairobi Metropolitan Service (NMS) questioning how he would have owed such a huge amount yet they have been honouring their land rate fee payment. In a response, NMS Director of Lands urged Mr Shah to ignore the notice and termed it a “forgery.”
Nairobi News has established that there were two court orders issued by a Milimani Court but the one used to carry out the eviction was forged.
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In court documents a company known as Lariak Properties Limited had moved to court seeking to evict Metro Pharmaceuticals Limited from the piece of land. The pharmaceutical company is owned by Mr Shah.
However, Mr Shah told Nairobi News that there was no link between the company and the property.
“I own the company but have no relationship with this family property. It is a clear indication that Lariak Properties Limited do not have any facts of this land,” he said.
Mr Baraza, the auctioneer, was armed with a court order while carrying out the eviction last week on Friday.
It has four orders in which order number three, stated that the OCS Parklands and Spring Valley Police Station to offer protection as auctioneers evicted Metro Pharmaceutical Limited from the property.
“…pending the hearing of the application an order of injunction is hereby issued directing the defendant whether by itself, servants or employees or whoever is acting in its capacity to be denied occupation or possession of the land,” the orders purported to have been issued by Principal Magistrate H. M Ng’ang’a reads.
These orders were issued on October 18, 2022.
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It further stated that the occupants should be issued with the eviction orders on November 1, 2022.
In the original court order, there were five orders issued by the same court and it had barred Lariak Properties Limited from accessing the piece of property pending the hearing of the case determination in court.
It had also asked the OCS Parklands and Spring Valley to ensure compliance of the court orders.
“That an order of injunction be and is hereby issued directing the defendant whether by itself, servants or employees or whoever is acting on its behalf to be restrained from trespassing the plaintiff possession of piece of land,” the ruling reads in part.
It however indicated that the order should not be interpreted as an eviction. This is the grounds that puts the auctioneers on the spot.
These orders were issued on November 3, 2022.
A spot check by Nairobi News on the registrar of companies revealed that Lariak Properties Limited is owned by four individuals namely Nathaniel Kipkemboi, Samuel Chepkwony, John Rotich and Joel Kiplang’at.
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