A company through which former Cabinet minister Amos Kimunya is accused of fraudulently transferring a 25-acre piece of land now wants the criminal prosecution case stopped.
Midland Limited and its chairman, Junghae Wainaina, Monday moved to court seeking to quash the criminal prosecution proceedings against the former Lands minister, Mr Wainaina and a director of land adjudication and settlement, Lilian Njenga.
The company and Mr Wainaina allege that the criminal trial has an ulterior motive, is illegal and that the Agriculture ministry wants to deprive Midland of its property and investments.
Transfer
“The ministry is using its considerable weight to use the EACC to deprive a public company its registered property and cause the transfer of the land for its valuable consideration, Midland Ltd and Mr Wainana are aggrieved by this violation of right through the start of an illegal criminal prosecution,” said lawyer Tom Maina Macharia.
Justice Weldon Korir gave the company and Mr Wainaina a go-ahead to sue the Director of Public Prosecutions Keriako Tobiko, the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission and a Milimani Law Courts chief magistrate.
Midland alleges its ownership includes leaders, residents and farmers from Nyandarua.
The firm processes and packages potatoes and is also owned 16 per cent by private equity firm Pearl Capital Partners.
Mr Kimunya was arrested in March this year and charged with having influenced the allocation of 25 acres in Nyandarua to the firm while serving as Lands minister.
The Ministry of Agriculture says the land was part of 75 acres it owns and was reserved for a potato seed project.
The ethics agency says Mr Kimunya was a director and shareholder in the company at the time of the transaction and did not seek the consent of the relevant ministry.
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