Detectives based in Nairobi have written to City Hall’s Lands Department investigating the ownership of a disputed piece of land in Parklands area after businessman Daniel Kimani expressed regret of losing Sh7.4 million during a botched processing of the title deed.
The land that measures 0.45600 hectares is registered as LR 209/4593/5 Parklands Road, Westlands, just opposite the Parklands Police Station.
He claims that Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko’s Economic Advisor Githende Gachanja and his Personal Assistant Daniel Mwangi Gatambo swindled him the amount in 2019.
Documents show that the land was initially allocated to ‘Alex Caetang Lactancio De Sousa’ in 1954 for a lease of 48 years and eight months.
But according to the complainant, Gachanja falsely alleged that ‘Lactancio’ died and left his cook behind who took over the land.
The ‘cook’ was reportedly unable to renew the lease and process the title, hence the land reverting to the County Government.
Gachanja and Gatambo promised Kimani that they would facilitate the renewal of the lease and smoothen the process of transferring the title to a discrete entity.
The recipient company was created by Gachanja.
They planned to sell the land later and share the spoils.
Kimani was to pocket Sh15 million from the proceeds of the ‘deal’.
“I was told that the MP Shah Hospital wants to buy the land to use it as a parking lot. Gachanja took me to his office at City Hall and told me to give him the money to facilitate the transactions,” Kimani lamented.
This was a brazen lie because documents showed that the Nairobi City County Planning Technical committee met on 04/04/2019 and recommended approval for lease renewal to the National Land Commission.
After he gave out the cash, he later realized that they showed him fake documents.
“I realized they had duped me. I demanded my money back and Gachanja is yet to pay me. He promised to pay me back on 12th June 2019 but has been lying since and sometimes he does not respond,” Kimani explained.
On his part, Gachanja’s counterpart Gatambo keeps insisting that the ‘deal’ is genuine but just delayed.
He further blamed Kimani for handing part of the money to strangers from City Hall instead of strictly dealing with Gachanja.
“Because we were the ones who oversaw the deal, we agreed to compensate him for his lost cash. But they gave some money to one Kevin and Oluoch who went and bought flashy cars,” Gatambo said.
Gatambo has another copy of a lease he claims to be from the Ministry of Lands that was given to one Peter Muange Kimuyu, LR NO 209/4593/5 deed plan number 402577, measuring approximately 0.1847 hectares for 99 years.
He lied that the lease was issued on September 1, 2002, but he claims it was issued last week.