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Mwau sucked into Tamarind, KCB Mavoko land dispute

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Businessman John Harun Mwau has, through his firm Wibeso Investments, laid claim to the contested land in Mlolongo, Mavoko. PHOTO | FILE

Businessman John Harun Mwau has been sucked into a multi-million shilling legal dispute involving multiple issuance of titles for the same piece of land that puts to question the integrity of records at the Land office.

The long-running dispute that has spilled into Machakos courtrooms is centered on a piece of land in Mlolongo on the outskirts of Nairobi that Tamarind Properties bought from a private owner six years ago for developing residential houses.

The developer has been unable to start work because of ownership disputes.

Mr Mwau, a former Kilome MP, made a claim to the same piece of land two years after the private developer, Tamarind, started work on the 27-acre piece of land, a claim he has supported with documents from the Ministry of Land.

The claim has since sparked a three-pronged legal battle that pits Tamarind against Kenya’s biggest bank by assets KCB, against Mr Mwau and against the Department of Lands that issues the controversial titles.

KCB is in court in pursuit of the more than Sh200 million it lent Tamarind for developing the piece of land, having taken possession of the land titles as security.

Tamarind is on a second front fighting out with Mr Mwau over ownership of the plot even as it tackles the Land office over the integrity of the documents it issued.

READ: KCB entangled in 17-acre Mavoko land fraud claim

The legal battle comes at a time when most Kenyan banks have stopped taking land titles as security for loans citing the chaos at the Lands office, which have damaged the integrity of the documents.

Mr Mwau, through Wibeso Investments, last week put in an application seeking to be enjoined as an interested party in Tamarind’s battle with KCB and affirmed Wibeso’s position as the registered owner of the land.

Wibeso has in its application accused KCB and Tamarind of attempting to defraud it of the piece of land, and of using the suit to slow down police investigations into the matter.

It has attached, as evidence, a copy of the grant for land that is being contested in court.

The grant shows that the land was transferred to Novicome in 2003 under a number of special conditions that the firm was yet to meet prior to Tamarind’s arrival on the scene.

Tamarind says searches done by its lawyers on Novicome and Wibeso at the registrar of companies show that both are owned by Mr Mwau.

Tamarind further claims in court that documents from the registrar of companies office show that that Wibeso and Novicome have never filed tax returns with the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA).

KCB sued Tamarind Meadows in 2012 seeking to recover a Sh200 million loan it had extended to the developer to build 208 housing units on the 27-acre land in Mavoko.

Tamarind has so far built 69 of the units but the raging controversy has put its plans to complete the construction on hold.

The battle over the land began in 2010 when Tamarind failed to get sub leases for the first two blocks of the houses it had built on the plot on grounds that there was another title registered to Wibeso, which had transferred the land to Novicome Limited.

Tamarind says prior to the court battle it had held a meeting with the then Land minister James Orengo at Mr Mwau’s Ronald Ngala street office to resolve the matter.

The developer says Mr Orengo agreed to search for an alternative piece of land to compensate Mr Mwau’s Novicome in order to save Tamarind’s Sh300 million investment on the ground.

Tamarind says Mr Mwau has since refused to accept alternative pieces of land he was offered between 2011 and 2013 forcing the parties to go to court.

Court documents show that Novicome acquired a Kenya Revenue Authority pin number in February 2009, six years after Wibeso allegedly transferred the land title to it.