Economy

Dead solicitor dragged into Karen land case, Miller says

A lawyer has raised doubts about a competing claim to a Sh8 billion parcel of land in Nairobi’s Karen area by claiming the solicitor who allegedly executed one of the transfers died 18 years before it happened.

The fraudulent transaction, he further told the court, was made long before the 134-acre property was legally sold to Muchanga Investments Limited in 1983 by Barclays Bank of Kenya.

Lawyer Cecil Miller presented documents before Justice Lucy Nyambura Gacheru apparently showing that the land was sold to a Mr John Mugo Kamau in 1978 and later transferred to Jina Enterprises before ending up with Telesource Limited, a company associated with Mr Joseph Konzollo, in 1994.

He then questioned the legality of the whole claim by presenting a Kenya Gazette notice that indicated that Mr Fredrick Hopley, the solicitor who allegedly signed the documents for the transfer of the parcel to Mr Kamau, died on August 30, 1960.

“It cannot be true that the solicitor signed the transfer documents from the grave. He had died 18 years before the land was allegedly sold to Mr Kamau in 1978,” Mr Miller told Justice Gacheru.

The lawyer, defending Muchanga Investments’ claim in the case, further said a search in the Companies Registry indicates that Telesource was registered in 2005 and could not have bought the land “(11 years) before it came into existence”.

Mr Miller said Telesource, which claims to have acquired the property from Mr Kamau, is relying on forged documents.

He said the land in dispute was owned by a Mr Arnold Brandley, who died in 1973 but appointed Barclays Bank as the executor of his will before his death, indicating how the parcel of land would be subdivided.

Justice Gacheru heard that the will was confirmed by High Court judge Channan Singh in March 1973.

“It is in the foregoing that Mr Hopley could not have signed for the transfer of the property in 1978, five years after the death of Mr Brandley,” the judge heard.

Mr Miller told the judge that Barclays sold the property to Muchanga Investments Limited in 1983 and effected a transfer of 134.4 acres of the parcel of land to the company owned by Mr Horatius Da Gama Rose.

He said from 1983 to 2014, Muchanga paid land rates to the Lands ministry and the Nairobi County government, formerly Nairobi City Council.

“None of the other claimants of the land have been paying rates over the land except Muchanga Investments Limited,” the lawyer told the judge.

He said evidence submitted in court shows that the sole owner of the land is Muchanga Investments, having bought it from Barclays.

He said all the other companies and individuals staking claim to the land were relying on forged documents and fraudulent entries in the mother title.

Mr Miller has traced ownership of the land back to 1921.

The hearing continues.