Detectives are probing a multimillion-shilling land fraud that has put two Presbyterian Church of East Africa (PCEA) clerics among other people in their list of persons of interest.
Hundreds of people fear losing their investment running into millions in the scandal.
The 790-acre parcel of land, previously a coffee farm, is located in Ruiru, Kiambu. It was owned by former Kiambaa legislator Stanley Githunguri, then registered under Tassia Coffee Estate Limited.
According to complaints sent to the Director of Criminal Investigations (DCI) George Kinoti, some PCEA clerics, under Milele Ventures Limited, approached the billionaire with intentions to acquire the land — L.R. No. 4299 and L.R. No. 10916 — measuring 280 acres and 510 acres respectively.
Their plan was to subdivide and then sell it to church members and non-members. After negotiations, the parties struck a Sh 1.2 billion deal on March 9, 2009, and potential investors were made to believe that the project was owned by the church and some of the transactions happened at PCEA’s head office in South C, Nairobi.
Rev Peter Kania, the current secretary-general has, disassociated the church from the deal.
According to the agreements which were witnessed by lawyer Juliet Theuri, the land was selling at Sh 700,000 per plot while the legal cost of each agreement was Sh 5,000.
According to Mr Kuria, those who recently visited Ms Theuri’s Westlands offices seeking their titles were shocked after allegedly being told that every plot owner is required to top up Sh 100,000 as “lawyer’s and title processing fee”.
The few people who paid never got their titles. Instead they were slapped with yet another new demand of an additional Sh 125,000 “title processing fee” per plot.
Another controversy over double allocation is also being reported. Two women who are among displaced plot owners claim there is a clear case of fraud as it’s evident that Milele Ventures Ltd sold the same land twice and received double payments.
[Article source: The Daily Nation, by Eric Wainaina]
