Double allocations of land parcels and apportionment of property to non-members have contributed to the deadly bloodbath witnessed at Kihiu Mwiri Land Buying Company in Murang’a.

Preliminary evidence gathered by detectives probing murders that have rocked the company indicate that some of the directors may be involved in a scam to defraud members of their land. They have also come across information that some non-members want to take over the management of their prime properties in Gatanga.

The Standard on Sunday is privy to information collected by detectives and a taskforce formed to hasten the issuance of title deeds showing that part of the land could have been allocated to some former senior government officials.

According to a detective, a former senior administrator in the region, who is still in public service, was allocated 40 acres of the prime land in Gatanga near Thika.

The investigator, who did not want to be named for fear of being seen to compromise the investigations, said five more former senior civil servants also benefited.

“Apart from the six beneficiaries who are non-members, there are also records indicating that some former directors sold small parcels of land to non-members, a move that has irked shareholders,” the officer said yesterday.

Cases of double allocation involving well-connected members have been unearthed, with some of the officials having as many as five allocations in the expansive property that has seen eight directors killed while four others are yet to be accounted for.

DOUBLE ALLOCATIONS

It is suspected that some of the directors killed may have been involved in allocating land  to more than one party while others may have been opposed to dishing out land to non-members.

Detectives are sifting through piles of documents they have seized from the company headquarters and are expected to lift the lid on the public officials who have irregularly benefited from the 1,285 acres of land.

Families of the murdered directors revealed that before they were killed, these directors had reported to police that they had received death threats.

Three weeks ago Peter Kariuki, who claimed to be chairman of one of the factions of Kihiu Mwiri Land Buying Company, went missing before his vehicle was found burnt in Tigoni area in Kiambu County, just days after he had spoken to The Standard on Sunday about his fears. In an interview at the farm, Kariuki claimed that there was a cartel “working some government officials who wanted to eliminate former and current directors to conceal fraud going on in the firm.”

“I can tell you without fear that there are people who want us dead so that they can take over the land records. We know them and these are the people who have been threatening us,” said Kariuki, whose whereabouts are still unknown.

On Friday, former and current directors of the troubled company reportedly presented themselves at the CID headquarters in Nairobi following summons by Inspector General of Police Joseph Boinnet and CID Director Ndegwa Muhoro. Muhoro said the CID were following crucial leads about hit men who were killing  Kihiu Mwiri directors.

He spoke as Acting Lands Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i visited the area and assured members of the company that the process to issue the title deeds was still on course.

The CS’s visit follows the Wednesday killing of two directors, Chrispus Wanyoike and Chege Mwangi, who were shot dead along the Kihiu-Mwiri-Kabati road.

Yesterday, Matiang’i said the taskforce has instructions to review all shareholder documents since his office had received two conflicting lists. “I have one list of 5,700 members and another one of 6,000 members. That is why we need to get the real number so that the process can be concluded,” he said.

For the last two decades, the giant land-buying firm has been embroiled in a bitter leadership wrangle pitting two rival groups, with each seeking to control the vast piece of land and assets valued at billions of shillings.

Since 2009, the company has been led by two rival camps led by the late Kimani Kuria, who was killed last May, and Peter Kariuki.

The 1,285-acre piece of land, which is a 20 minutes’ drive from Thika town, is fertile and prime due to its proximity to the Nairobi-Meru highway.

Being a director of the land-buying firm has now become like signing one’s death warrant. Last month, another director, Paul Kaharu, was shot dead as he was getting into his car at Majengo Estate in Thika town, where he had allegedly stopped to exchange greeting with a friend on the way to his Starehe estate home just nearby.

Kaharu was one of the officials a government technical committee had contacted to get information to help in unravelling the land mystery.

According to witnesses, a lone gunman riding on a motorbike shot Kaharu four times in the head and chest. He then sped off after the attack. “The criminal, who seemed not to be in a hurry even stopped and pointed the gun at us and told us to tell the remaining directors that they will soon come for them,” said an eye witness.

In May another director, Kimani Kuria who was the chairman of a rival group, was gunned down by unknown people who also escaped after committing the murder.

COLD BLOOD

Other directors who have been killed in cold blood are Wilfred Gichana, Newton Chege Muhoro, Ngugi Kamau and Benson Ngumi.

Three others — Henry Ngugi, Job Mwangi and James Kimaru — mysteriously disappeared last year and are yet to be found.

When The Standard of Sunday visited the expansive farm, fear and suspicion among residents was evident on their faces.

They would not easily agree to talk to strangers since they do not know whom they may be talking to.

However, the few who agree to speak to our reporters say a plot to take over the prime piece of land has been the source of the perennial wrangles.

One resident claimed both the groups fighting for leadership were not doing so to benefit the members but to profiteer.

He said trouble started in the farm in early the 1990s when the then directors started to dispose company assets without the consent of members.

“They sold tractors, lorries, coffee farms and machines in a coffee factory that the land firm owned. That was the start of the problems in this farm,” he said.

“The only way to end further problem in this farm is for members to be issued with title deeds which they have been seeking for the last 40 years,” he said.

Some members accused directors of selling their pieces of land to unsuspecting buyers.

John Mwaura said double and multiple allocations by the directors was common place. A quarter acre parcel fetches Sh1.2 million. “Today, you will find about five people laying claim to the same piece of land that they say they bought from the same directors,” said Mwaura.

Another member, Naomi Wanjiku, says the conflict is as a result of the resolve by some directors to oppose the issuance of title deeds in order they can continue selling the land to unsuspecting buyers. “They are opposed at members getting titles  so that they can hide their past misdeeds and continue preying on unsuspecting buyers,” said Wanjiku.