A man said to have transferred the disputed Sh8 billion Karen land died three years before the transfer.
Documents filed in court indicate that John Kamau Mugo, said to have sold the land to Telesource.com Limited in October 2005, died on April 27, 2002. “The purported transfer from John Kamau Mugo to Telesource.com Limited was purportedly executed by John Kamau Mugo on October 17, 2005,” an affidavit filed in court partly read. The affidavit by Horatious Da Gama Rose, director of Muchanga Limited, attached a death certificate which shows that Mr Mugo succumbed to cancer at 60 years and was buried in Kiambu. Last year, Muchanga’s lawyer Cecil Miller presented to Justice Lucy Gacheru documents that show Mugo bought the land in 1978. Miller produced a Gazette notice that indicated that Fredrick Hopley, the solicitor who allegedly signed the transfer documents of the land to Mugo, died on August 30, 1960. Muchanga has sued Telesource.com, Jina Enterprises, Habenga Holdings, Director of Survey, Ministry of Lands and Housing, Director of Physical Planning, Registrar of Titles and Chief Lands Registrar.
Parties to the suit yesterday appeared before Justice Gacheru who gave the respondents one month to file their responses. The businessman has included Barclays Bank as an interested party. Although the bank had said it could not retrieve documents showing it sold the land to Muchanga Limited, Da Gama Rose has now filed fresh documents to prove his claim. The documents include letters written by Barclays Bank to two tenants directing them to start paying rent to Muchanga Limited and not the bank. In one of the letters titled Arnold Bradey (deceased); Re: ‘Castle’ being portion of L.R. 3586 Lang’ata owned by Muchanga Investments Limited, the bank informed the tenants that the land had since been sold. “We write to advise you that the above mentioned property has recently been sold and with effect from January 1, 1979, would you please pay your future rent to Messrs Muchanga Investments Ltd, P.O Box 20632, Nairobi,” C.C. Graham, assistant manager, wrote to A.H.V. Church and N.A Dundas, Esq, in a letter dated December 7, 1978. Da Gama Rose moved to court in September 2014 and obtained orders preventing the subdivision and transfer of the 134.4 acres. The businessman said he bought the land from Barclays.
