Court bid to summon Moi in land row fails yet again

A third attempt to serve former President Daniel arap Moi with court summons in a land dispute pitting him against the United States International University, USIU-A, failed after process servers were turned away from his Kabarnet Gardens home in Nairobi Thursday.

Security guards at the posh home near Kibera slums asked the court clerks to serve the summons personally to the former Head of State.
On Monday and Wednesday, the security guards had asked the court clerks to return yesterday because Mr Moi was away at his home in Kabarak, Nakuru.

The former president is accused of selling a prime piece of land in Nairobi to both the university and Maestro Connections Health Systems Limited using reconstituted title deeds.

The private university has roped in the former president as the second respondent in the suit against Maestro Connections Health Systems Limited and the chief land registrar as the third respondent and argues that the parties “could not have transacted on a non-existent land parcel” which changed ownership since 1982.

Moi is needed in court

Mr Moi is needed in court to explain how he sold the one plot to the university and to Dr George Kiongera of Maestro Connections Health Systems.

READ: USIU sues Moi in prime land row

Process servers have the option of seeking the court’s permission to serve the heavily guarded former president through media notices.

USIU-A is questioning the legality of records that were purportedly reconstructed in favour of Mr Moi to show that he still owned the property.

The university has also challenged the former president to table receipts of land rates paid to the defunct City Council of Nairobi since 1982 to prove his ownership of the land.

Mr Moi has been accused of obtaining a title irregularly after purporting to have lost the original, leading to a double sale.

The court wants him to explain how he obtained a provisional certificate of title in his name after a paper trail showing that he surrendered the property and detailing how the ownership of the dispute property has changed hands from 1982 to date.

The suit states that in 1984 Mr Moi surrendered two original certificates and was issued with one certificate of title for the consolidated parcel of land known as LR no 12597.