Moi Properties: The late former President Daniel Toroitich Moi and his political and business associates are part of the reason why Uchumi Supermarkets is on its death bed. According to a report that appeared in the Business Daily on Tuesday, the president and his cronies acquired two title deeds fraudulently. The title deeds were for a piece of land valued at Sh. 2.3 billion located in Roysambu. They then used the titles to sell the land to Uchumi.
After the sale, Uchumi used the titles to acquire a bank loan from Absa Bank Kenya, which at the time was known as Barclays Bank of Kenya.
Apart from the report in the daily business newspaper that is owned by the Nation Media Group, these revelations are also contained in a report by the National Assembly’s Departmental Committee on Lands. This report shows that Uchumi, banks, churches and the Kenya Defence Forces are among a group of victims that may lose billions in investments made on the same land that Moi had acquired fraudulently. The land measures 17 acres and was rightfully owned by Mayer Jacob Samuels.
“It emerged that Solio Construction Company Limited, which was partly owned by Mr Moi, was given the land for free in 1999 in an irregular transfer signed by land officials while the property remained under Mayer Jacob Samuels, an Israeli who died in 1974. Uchumi, through its investment vehicle Kasarani Mall, said it paid Solio Sh. 85 million in 2001 for the land, which the Kenya Defence Forces has now taken over,” the report in the Business Daily said.
Apparently, he owned the land on a 99-year lease that expired on November 1, 2003. However, Moi and his cronies fraudulently took it over before the lease expired and sold it to Uchumi.
“The purported transfer of lease to Solio Construction Limited was done when there was already a subsisting lease of 99 years which was to expire in 2003 and the transfer was effected in 2001, two years before the expiry of the lease,” the report by the committee said, adding that, “the Chief Land Registrar, Ms Sarah Mwenda, denied signing the transfer form transferring the parcel of land LR 5875/2 from Solio Construction Company Limited to Kasarani Mall Limited in 2001, although a stamp bearing her unique number (14) was used in the said form.”
The committee report further said that Solio had acquired a separate title to the same property on May 18, 1992. This separate title was then used to take a loan of undisclosed amount from Absa.
“After acquiring the land from Solio, Uchumi sold it to Jewel Complex Limited which paid a deposit of Sh. 330 million that was financed by KCB. Jewel had committed to conclude the transaction on the condition that the land (LR. 5875/2) is merged with a nearby plot (LR. 23393) which it also intended to acquire from Grace Independent Baptist Mission Trustees using a loan of undisclosed amount from Equity Bank,” the report in the Business Daily said.
The Kenya Defence Forces has also laid claim to the property which is registered as LR.5875/2. The KDF has further moved to occupy even though the Ministry of Defence does not hold a title for the property. The KDF claims that it offered t buy the land in 1985 at a cost of Sh. 3.5 million.
However, this deal seems not to have gone through, which saw Mr. Samuels retain the land until its lease expired in 2003. “Additionally, despite the fact that the Ministry of Defence submitted a receipt showing that Sh. 3.5 million was paid to the Commissioner of Land, there was no evidence submitted to indicate that the money was deposited to Middle East Bank and released to Mr Jacobs,” the committee report was quoted by the business paper. Moi Properties.
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