Customers being served at a KCB branch. An investment group wants to be enjoined in a case where the bank has sued Tamarind for defaulting on a Sh200m loan. FILE PHOTO | NATION MEDIA GROUP
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KCB had sued Tamarind, claiming that the property developer was to repay the loan in full by 2011, but it was in default of over Sh200 million which it wanted recovered.
Wibeso said that both KCB and Tamarind are aware that it is the registered owner of the land on which Tamarind had planned to build 208 housing units.
KCB is embroiled in a property dispute with an investment group that is accusing a property developer who borrowed over Sh200 million from the bank of attempting to defraud it of a 17-acre piece of land in Mavoko.
Wibeso Investment has made the claims in an application seeking to join a suit in which KCB wants Tamarind compelled to surrender the land to it after it defaulted on the loan.
In its suit papers, Wibeso said that both KCB and Tamarind are aware that it is the registered owner of the land on which Tamarind had planned to build 208 housing units.
“KCB and Tamarind’s suit is a conspiracy intended to defraud Wibeso of its property, which was registered on March 13, 1997. They are perpetuating fraud under a fake title purportedly registered on June 18, 2002,” Wibeso said.
KCB had sued Tamarind, claiming that the property developer was to repay the loan in full by 2011, but it was in default of over Sh200 million which it wanted recovered.
The land, Wibeso added, is the subject of an investigation by the police that could see officials from both KCB and Tamarind charged with fraudulent acquisition of the land title.
The suit lodged by KCB, Wibeso insists, is a ploy to slow down the possible arrest of the said officials.
“There is likelihood that the officials of the plaintiff and defendant (KCB and Tamarind) being aware that they are likely to be arrested and charged in court, filed this suit in order to block justice,” Bedan Mbugua, the group’s managing director says in the suit papers.
Wibeso contends that it notified the property developer and the bank which has proceeded with the suit despite its efforts to notify the court of the status of the land and investigations into its alleged grabbing.
The police investigation, it added, may also lead to the arrest of officials in the Lands ministry. The investment group wants the court to determine the validity of the title presented by KCB and Tamarind before granting any orders to either of the two parties.
Wibeso’s application came as Lady Justice Jacqueline Kamau heard another application in the suit seeking to compel the chief Land registrar to issue sub-leases for the housing units.
Tamarind had faulted the Land registrar for failing to issue it with sub-leases for the land, arguing that this slowed down the occupation of the housing units which in turn led it to default on the loan it was to repay with proceeds from the sale of the houses.
The Ministry of Land, Housing and Urban Development in its response said that an application for a grant on the land had been turned down in August 2008 because there was an existing grant on the same land.
Edwin Wafula, a senior Land registrar at the ministry, said that the land was already registered under grant number 72481 in favour of Wibeso Investments. The original records on the grant, however, had been misplaced.
The Land ministry has also requested Lady Justice Kamau to transfer the case to the Land division of the High Court, so as to determine the true owner of the property.
An internal memo from the ministry attached in the case file states that the title owned by Tamarind is fake.
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