DPP orders investigation into Railway land

The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) has initiated investigations on how two prime ocean front parcels of land belonging to Kenya Railways at the Shimanzi port in Mombasa ended up in private hands.

The two parcels whose value stands at Sh2 billion were acquired through a lease document was forged using a false order from President Mwai Kibaki three weeks to the March 4, 2013 General Election. One of the pieces of land has already been developed by Mtech Building Works while the other has been sold or Sh580 million to Gold Hazel Limited.

Director of Public Prosecutions Noordin Haji has directed the National Lands Commision (NLC) to furnish him with a comprehensive report to enable his office to give legal directions on the matter that will unravel who owns the land.

Through Senior Prosecution Counsel Japheth Isaboke, the DPP wrote to NLC in August 27 demanding for the report sent NLC’s acting Chairperson Abigael Mbagaya a reminder on October 2 with a seven days ultimatum to forward the document to his office.

“It is now exactly a month since you sought for extra time and no correspondence has been received from your end. This is a highly sensitive matter that contains great public interest that deserves to be handled expeditiously and without much delay,” the letter reads in part.

In its efforts to gather information, NLC wrote to the Ministry of Infrastructure, Housing & Urban Development and Lands Principal Secretary Nicholas Muraguri requesting for details on the “Grabbed property Mombasa Block/XIV 367, Mombasa Block/XIV 374 and Mombasa Block/IXV368.”

In the lease certificate being investigated, M-Tech’s directors are listed as Hussein Hamisi and Salim Amin. Gold Hazel’s directors are listed as Mohamed Islam and Ali Islam Ali. In August an expose by the Sunday Standard showed questionable variations of dates, typing errors, forgeries of signatures and lack of clarity on when the land changed hands from Kenya Railways.

“The title issued is also a Government lease whilst according to the records we have encountered, the land in question also belongs to Kenya Railways,” says the investigation report on the matter which we have seen.

The County Government of Mombasa might also find itself in trouble over the matter for giving approvals for construction on a piece of land which it has no records of payment of rates.