BY SHADRACK NYAKOE
Mathira MP Rigathi Gachagua has been accused of grabbing a piece of land belonging to the public along Mombasa road.
The land in contention is behind the Nation Media Group Newspaper Printer.
It’s a 4 acre piece of land.
According to documents tabled before the Nairobi City County Assembly Public Accounts committee, LR No 209/12077 which was originally public land – was fraudulently acquired.
Former Director of Physical Planning in the Ministry of Lands John Michael Ohas said Gachagua through his company Wamunyoro Investments Limited acquired the land fraudulently.
Ohas trades under the name Columbus 2000 Limited and is laying claim to the land.
“In the year 1994, I submitted an application for allocation of the above parcel of land through the then commissioner of lands and settlement scheme. My application was duly considered and approved,” Ohas said in a petition signed by Ombok Owuor and Company advocates.
Ohas said that he was dully issued with a letter of Alottment which he duly paid for pending the registration of the title.
He adds that he fell ill and was taken to the United Kingdom for specialized treatment and this delayed the registration process.
Hot News was shown letters of allotment and receipts evidencing acceptance and payments of land rates by Columbus 2000 Limited.
Ohas added that when he came back to the Country, he proceeded to the office of the Director of survey to ascertain the allocation.
“The director of survey sought confirmation from the National Land Commission whether my allocation was genuine. The NLC confirmed that my allocation was genuine and it wrote to the Director of Survey dated 23rd March 2017,” he said.
He said that upon attempts to commence on the registration with the lands registry, he was informed that the whole file, including the deed plan was missing.
Ohas adds the NLC asked him to provide a certified copy of the deed plan.
He was issued with the deed plan by the director of survey.
“I latter found out that the lost file and the deed plan were fraudulently used to illegally register a title in favor of Wamunyoro Investments Company. Upon making attempts to follow up on how the same was procured, I was threatened by agents of the company who had taken physical possession and control of the property hindering me from accessing the premises,” he said.
Ohas added that he complained to NLC but NLC upheld Wamunyoro’s title deed without listening to him.
He wants the Title deed revoked in his favor and the former NLC commissioners led by Mohammed Zwazuri probed for misconduct and abuse office.
He accused the former NLC commissioners of receiving bribes from Wamunyoro Investments Limited in order to uphold his title deed.
When reached for comment, a former NLC commissioners who chaired the meeting that upheld Wamunyoro’s title deed denied wrong doing.
The Commissioner said no Commissioner took cash from Wamunyoro to uphold the title deed.
“NLC has never issued a title deed to any one, not even title deed to public land. All titles are issued by the ministry of lands and those titles you are talking about must have been issued before the new constitution and NLC coming,” the Commissioner said.
On his part, Gachagua told Hot News he is not interested in such matters.
“My friend, I am not interested,” he said as he hanged the phone.
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