The Director of Criminal Investigations (DCI) George Kinoti has ignited a new battle with billionaire businessman Jimi Wanjigi by recommending that the ODM presidential aspirant be charged with fraud over a piece of land worth at least Sh400 million in Westlands, Nairobi.
The prime property measuring 0.34414 hectares, located at the junction of Peponi and General Mathenge roads has been under investigation since 2018 after it emerged that it had three separate titles.
Detectives from the Land Fraud Unit of the DCI have now forwarded the investigation file to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) recommending Mr Wanjigi, his wife Nzisa and eight other people be arrested and charged with fraud.
Mr Kinoti and Mr Wanjigi are already involved in another legal feud that has resulted in the DCI director getting a four-month jail term, which has now been suspended, for refusing to hand over the billionaire’s guns that were confiscated in 2017.
In the new battle between the two, the DCI has said that Hemanshu Velji, Kaneez Noorani, Mohammed Noorani, Mohammed Hassanali, Promchand Dhodia, Augustina Kairu and Ministry of Lands official Fredrick Indhalo should also be arrested for playing a part in the scam.
Mr Wanjigi and his wife Nzisa, through their company Aerum Ltd; businesswoman Cissy Kalunde Musembi; and Horizon Hills Ltd have titles for the property LR No 1870/II/200.
This anomaly was discovered when Aerum tried to sell the land to Kenroid Lt owned by businessman Yogesh Patel on May 28, 2019 for Sh260 million.
Suspecting that he had been conned after paying Sh56 million as deposit, Mr Patel sued Aerum Ltd at the Environment and Lands Court.
He also reported the matter to the DCI, which launched investigations to determine how the land ended up with three titles.
“The title deed in question was never issued by the government. The suspects only come together with intentions to forge a title with intention to defraud Kenroid Ltd,” said Mr Kinoti in the file forwarded to the DPP on December 10.
According to investigations, Mr Velji, who allegedly claimed he had acquired the land through a government allotment in 1997, had no documents to show how the state gave him the property. Instead, the original owner, according to investigations, is Dhodia Foam Ltd.
The DCI says there is no documentation to show that Dhodia sold or transferred to the land to Mr Velji. Nevertheless, Mr Velji, on July 12, 2005, allegedly offered the land for sale at Sh40 million through property agent Hassanali.
“On November 24, 2006, Mohammed Hassanali as an agent, instead of finding a buyer, colluded with Mohammed Noorani and allegedly registered a company, Horizon Hills Ltd by certificate number C131937 which purported to want to purchase the land from Himanshu Velji,” says the investigation file.
“On November 24, 2006, Mr Hassanali and Velji in collusion with Kaneez Nooranim, who was the purported purchaser … executed three questionable transfers witnessed by advocate Jimmy Rayani,” says the DCI.
The transfer documents for the property show that its valuation was done on Sunday, January 21, 2007, a day when government offices are closed to the public and long after the registration for the transfer was made, on December 29, 2006.
“It is unusual and unheard of for government valuation of a property to be done on a Sunday and well after the registration of a transfer in respect to that property,” the DCI has remarked.
After getting the land transferred to its name ‘offered’ the property for sale to Mr Wanjigi and his wife for Sh156 million. The two allegedly appointed Augustine Thuo and Tyl Company to stand in as purchasers on their behalf. Tyl is one of the companies owned by Mr Wanjigi.
Interestingly, in the midst of the execution of the sale, Mr Thuo on April 9, 2010 and Tyl Limited, acquired three company shares of Horizon at a consideration of Sh51 million. The share transfer, which the DCI has since flagged as questionable, caused Mr Hassanali and Mr Noorani to purport to hold trust for Tyl and Mr Thuo, while two other directors resigned.
On April 23, 2010, Mr Thuo purported to have transferred his one company share to Ms Nzisa before resigning six days later on April 29. Then the file belonging to Horizon Hills mysteriously disappeared from the Companies Registry.
“The Companies Registry could not confirm who were Horizon Hills Ltd and their owners before Tabitha Nyamweru an official at the state office created a temporary file for the company,” says the investigation file.
“The fact that the Companies Registry accepted unverified and unauthenticated documents from outside the registry and used them to create a temporary file for the company is in itself an irregularity that raises serious doubts about the credibility of government records,” remarked the DCI.
A few weeks later, Ms Nzisa, the DCI says, wrote a letter to the manager Chase Bank, instructing him to transfer Sh138,600,000 to account number 1104021100domiciled in the same bank belonging to JM Njage and advocates as a further payment to a first installment of Sh15.4 million for the property.
On May 10, 2010 Mr Thuo and Tyl Ltd, acting on behalf of Mr Wanjigi and his wife, wrote to JM Njage and Advocates who were acting on behalf of Horizon, informing them that the Sh138 million had been remitted to their account for the property.
“The bank clarified through a bank official named Kevin Kimani in an affidavit dated July 23, 2019 that Tyl Ltd does not have an account with the bank and therefore no such payments would have been made from a non-existent account,” the DCI has noted.
In early 2018, Mr Wanjigi and his wife, then directors of Horizon Hills, decided to change the company name to Aerum Ltd. They then got into a sales agreement with Kenroid Ltd for the property for Sh280 million. Kenroid was to pay Sh56 million as first installment for the property, which it did.
However, while conducting due diligence on the property, Kenroid discovered that the land had another title belonging to Ms Musembi. Kenroid demanded back the Sh56 million it had paid. When this failed it placed a caveat on the land and reported the case to the DCI.
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