A lawyer by the name Stephen Ndeda was on Thursday charged with damaging a perimeter wall belonging to GA Insurance.
Appearing before Makadara Chief Magistrate Lewis Gatheri, he was accused of damaging the wall valued at shs 400,000.
According to the charge sheet, the lawyer was accompanied by Amos Mokua Nyasani, Joash Mokaya and Ronald Mwashigadi.
The prosecution alleged that on the 1st day of March 2023 at ICD Gate A in Embakasi Sub county within Nairobi, with others not before court, they willing lily and unlawfully damaged the perimeter wall.
“On the 1st day of March 2023 at ICD Gate A in Embakasi Sub county within Nairobi, Stephen Ndeda is alleged to have said, “bomoa hiyo ukuta nitawalipa.(destroy that wall I will pay you,. Which words indicated or implied it was desired to incite members of the public to destroy the perimeter wall,” the prosecution said.
The prosecution also alleged that on the 7th day of December 2022 while armed with a pistol, Ndeda threatened to shoot one Abraham Kipchumba Korir.
He was released on a cash bail of shs 150,000.
In December 2022, Senior detectives at the DCI Headquarters were blamed for abetting the grabbing of a three-acre piece of land belonging to G.A Insurance.
The land in contention is the one that has landed the lawyer in trouble and is located near the Inland Container Depot off Mombasa Road in Embakasi area, Nairobi.
It is registered as LR number 209/10601/12
Attempts by G.A Insurance to take possession of the land in the past had borne no fruits since the land grabbers led by Lawyer Stephen Juma Ndeda , businessman Abdub Diba Boru, Diba Boru Jaldesa and Stella W Nyamu have been hiring goons to evict G.A Insurance staff.
The matter was investigated by Embakasi DCI office.
In December, DCI told G.A staff that they can seek help elsewhere since the police cannot arrest and prosecute the goons sent by the fraudsters.
The goons brought down a fence erected by GA staff then.
The Insurance firm called on the DCI Boss Amin Mohamed to intervene so that the fraudsters are arrested and prosecuted.
A senior detective who they did not name was reportedly behind the scheme to grab the land.
According to investigations, GA Insurance bought the land from Economic Industries Limited, which had purchased it from Eldo Dwellers Limited for Sh9 million in 2005.
Eldo Dwellers bought the property from the original owners, Sadru Musa Ramji and Yasmin Sadru Musa Ramji in 2004.
“On March 19, 2021 Dikus Transporters put excavators on the property and begun excavating the land and prepared the land for development with what GA Insurance regards as a fraudulent title. On the same day Dikus Transporters also loaded GA Insurance’s building materials into their trucks and which incident was reported at Embakasi police station,” GA Insurance said.
The Insurance firm produced as evidence, a search from the Ministry of Lands and a copy of the title seen by our reporter showing that the underwriter is the registered owner.
The underwriter had planned to fence the prime property on March 12 2021 but found Dikus Transporters director Diba Boru on site with a group of young men.
The group attacked workers who were to put up the fence, and destroyed building materials worth Sh675,000.
Dikus officials and Mr Ndeda then produced title deeds claiming that they own the Sh400 million property.
GA said the documents are fake.
The title held by Dikus indicates that the firm bought the land from Mr Ndeda in 2020, and that the lawyer acquired the property from a Mr David Mutinda based in Mombasa.
Detectives privy to the matter said Mr Mutinda irregularly and illegally acquired the land.
A senior investigator privy to the matter said Mutinda was allocated the land by one Jattani Waqo who was an agent of G.A insurance after collusion with senior officials at Ardhi House.
While acting for G.A Insurance during the transfer of the land from Economic Industries Limited, Mr Waqo and Auctioneer Kennedy Ngumbao were each paid shs 4million as commission.
When it bought the land, G.A Insurance contacted one Jattani Waqo to be a caretaker of the land.
He was paid shs 60,000 per month for four years.
GA said that being a resident of the area, Jattani Waqo colluded with David Mutinda and latter Juma Ndeda.
Documents in our possession show that Dikus Transporters was incorporated on 12th February 2013 under CPR number /2013/94611.
Its directors are Stella W Nyamu, Abdub Diba Boru and Diba Boru Jaldesa.
One of the directors had linked former finance CS Ukur Yattani to the land.
He said the CS is an interested Party.
When reached for comment, the CS said he only knows Dikus Transporters as a businessman.
“I know him as a businessman, but I have no idea of what you are talking about,” Yattani told a local daily in 2021.
He warned those linking him to the land to stop the “unfounded allegations”.
“Dikus is a prominent businessman in Nairobi,” Yattani said.
I&M Bank also wrote a letter saying the land was used as security for a Sh1 million loan taken in 2014.
GA Insurance holds that Dikus Transporters and Stephene Juma Ndeda intend to sell the land to unsuspecting buyers.
In 2021, the Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS) wrote to the Ministry of Lands, seeking details of the property following an attempt by Dikus Transporters to subdivide it.
On 3rd May 2021 Mr. N.D Nyambaso Senior Assistant Chief Land Registrar wrote to DCI Embakasi that the file to the land was missing
G.A were advised that an indemnity be created.
On 1st December 2022, GA through lawyer Paul Mwangi wrote to EACC accusing three Ardhi house officials of receiving shs 20 million bribe from cartels to defraud it of its land.
“Utterly shocking is that two individuals, Stephen Juma Ndeda and one Mr. Jatani Waqo have turned Mr Billow Mohammed a land registrar’s office into their office. Equally despite being transferred from the Ministry of Lands, OWINO JACOB CATTWRIGHT has constantly been to the land offices since complaints against the issuance of the said titles was reported to the DCI. We find this to be peculiar and his presence can only be explained to have an intent to achieve an ulterior motive” G.A told the EACC.
On 5th December 2022, Principal Land Registrar Edwin Wafula wrote to Lawyer Ndeda saying the title to the land was issued based on misrepresentation of facts that misled his office.
“The above title was obtained by fraud and forgery. The Genuine proprietor in respect of the above land is G.A Insurance limited. In view of the foregoing, therefore the said Title and any subdivisions if any is hereby cancelled as provided for under sec. 79(2) of the land registration act 2012,” Wafula said.
G.A said Mr Boru had in December 2022 been arrested for bringing down the perimeter fence but latter released under unclear circumstances.
The Insurance firm said then accused the DPPs office of reluctance to prosecute the grabbers.
