Economy

USIU sues Moi in prime Nairobi land row

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Dr George Kiongera. On September 15, last year, Mr Moi received a new title for 12422 land and sold the property to Dr Kiongera of Maestro Connections Health Systems. PHOTO | FILE

Former President Daniel arap Moi has been sued in a land saga pitting the United States International University-Africa against a private developer who claims he bought the property from the former head of state.

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

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

USIU-A has also challenged the former president to table receipts of land rates paid to the defunct City Council of Nairobi since 1982 to attesting to his ownership of the land.

READ: USIU now accuses property developer of grabbing its land

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

Mr Moi is wanted in court to explain how he obtained a provisional certificate of title in his name against the backdrop of a paper trail showing that he surrendered the property and detailing how the ownership of the dispute property has changed hands since 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.

USIU-A notes that the initial land labelled LR 12422/19 ceased to exist after the consolidation.

The documents show that Moi sold and transferred the dispute property to DPS International limited.

During the same time, former minister Arthur Magugu was also selling and transferring an adjacent land parcel LR 12608 to DPS and as a result Mr Moi and late Magugu executed one transfer instrument in favour of DPS for the transfer of the respective land parcels.

DPs later sold the land to ICEA which in turn sold it to USIU-A.

The university argues that the parcel of land described as 12422/19 by the developer and Mr Moi ceased to exist in 1984 when it was consolidated and amalgamated with land parcel 12422 to give rise to the consolidated land parcel 12597.

Mr Moi applied for a duplicate title against an ownership record that should have been destroyed when they were consolidated, the court papers state.

Then Registrar of Land W.M. Muigai gazetted the loss of Mr Moi’s document on January 16, 2015.

On September 15, last year, Mr Moi received a new title for 12422 land and sold the property to Dr George Kiongera of Maestro Connections Health Systems.

Dr Kiongera suffered a major setback when a judge reversed an order he had obtained requiring guards stationed at the dispute site by USIU-A to vacate.