Wanjigi caught up in Sh400m land tussle with Kitengela traders

Businessman Jimi Wanjigi is embroiled in a Sh400 million tussle over the ownership of a prime land in Nairobi.  

Wanjigi (pictured) and the two Kitengela businessmen have claimed ownership of the one acre piece of land situated on General Mathenge Road in Wetlands.

Both parties claim they have genuine ownership documents to the land. Wanjigi has rushed to the police and filed a complaint.

He has recorded statements with Parklands DCI officers claiming ownership of the land.  

The two businessmen also laying a claim to the land did not appear before the investigators to give their side of the story.

So protracted is the battle that the investigations have now been taken over by the Land Fraud Unit at the DCI headquarters.

Sources familiar with the investigations told Sunday Standard that DCI chief George Kinoti directed that the matter be moved from the Parklands DCI to the Land Fraud Unit on Kiambu Road following pressure from powerful individuals in and outside government.

Wanjigi recorded his statement on August 29, claiming that he had bought the disputed land.

High-end neighborhood

He accused the two businessmen trading as Horizon Hills Limited of colluding with lands officials at Ardhi House to take away the land.

In his three-page statement, Wanjigi does not, however, reveal when he bought the land and from whom. He also did not reveal how much he had paid for the prime parcel in the high-end neighborhood.

He insisted that he had been paying land rates and rent to the government since he acquired the parcel of land.

Wanjigi told the police that he acquired the land after he bought off a company known as Horizon Hills and proceeded to change ownership to a company in which his wife Irene Nzisa is a director.

An investigator said Wanjigi had later told the police that he acquired the land in 2005.

Among the documents collected by the investigator in relation to the parcel of land is a letter from the National Land Commission (NLC) said to be an original, with details of the land.

He narrated to the DCI how he was approached by a director of a company called Horizon Hills Limited which sold him the land.

Asset portfolio

He acquired all shareholding of the company, including the piece of land, which was the only asset that the company had in its portfolio.

Two men whom he said were his proxies and whom he identifies as Kairo Thuo and John Njenga were incorporated into the deal.

Njenga and Kairo were registered as Wanjigi’s representatives in the new company through another company known as Tyl Limited.

Last year, Wanjigi wanted to sell the piece of land. He was in discussions with a prospective buyer when he learnt that the two Kitengela traders were also laying claim to it.

Efforts to get a comment from the DCI head of Serious Crimes Unit under which the land Fraud Unit falls failed yesterday.

Several calls to the section head, Kuria Obadia, went unanswered.