How a 'ghost' plaintiff and forged orders gave away Miwani estate

Miwani Sugar Factory. [File, Standard]

A parliamentary committee has exposed shocking irregularities in the protracted dispute over the 9,394-acre Miwani Sugar Mills nucleus estate, unmasking a web of procedural fraud that includes a ghost plaintiff, a forged court order, a Christmas Eve auction, and a provisional title issued in blatant violation of the law.

The National Assembly’s Departmental Committee on Lands, chaired by North Mugirango MP Joash Nyamache, has tabled a damning report on Public Petition No. 28 of 2025. Tabled on August 27, the report reveals a coordinated scheme that saw Crossley Holdings Limited purportedly acquire the land through judicial manipulation, executive overreach, and missing public records.

The saga of Miwani Sugar Mills began in 1922 when the company was incorporated in Kisumu County. By 1988, financial difficulties had forced the company into receivership by secured creditors. On April 13, 1989, the Government of Kenya acquired a 100 per cent shareholding, subsequently incorporating Miwani Sugar Company (1989) Limited as a public entity.

The trouble began in 1993 when a man named Nagendra Saxena filed a civil suit against the mill, claiming Sh114 million in consultancy fees. To date, investigations by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC), the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), and the Department of Immigration have failed to trace Saxena anywhere in Kenya or India. The State Department of Immigration has confirmed it holds no records of such a person.

In June 2007, the High Court entered an ex parte judgment in his favour on the very same day it was requested. Then, on December 24, 2007, Christmas Eve, and just three days before the hotly contested 2007 General Election, Crossley Holdings purportedly bought the land at a public auction for Sh752 million.

The Lands Committee identified a series of bizarre irregularities surrounding the auction. The Nyando Land Control Board sanctioned the transfer via a consent dated December 24, 2007, the same day as the auction. The plaintiff confirmed the sale on that same day, and the court order vesting the property in Crossley also bore the same date.

"The fact that the court order, the auction, and the land board consent all bear the same date is a significant irregularity that points to a coordinated and expedited process outside the normal legal framework," the Committee observed.

Furthermore, the provisional certificate of title was issued to Crossley on January 29, 2008, just 37 days after the auction. This was a direct violation of Section 71 of the Registration of Titles Act, which mandates a 90-day gazettement notice period when an original title is unavailable.

The Committee also noted that a Deputy Registrar had extended time, entered judgment, approved costs, and confirmed the sale entirely without jurisdiction. Crucially, Lady Justice Olga Sewe later testified that the original court file was missing and the court order relied upon during the auction was forged.

In July 2011, the Court of Appeal declared the ex parte judgment and the subsequent auction null and void ab initio. The apex court found that Saxena never paid the required court filing fees and that the summons had expired for 14 years without renewal. Because the Court of Appeal was the final court of adjudication under the previous Constitution, and no appeal was filed to the Supreme Court, the 2011 judgment was final and binding.

Yet, in September 2021, the Environment and Land Court (ELC), a lower court that was officially established on August 30, 2021, a full month after the Court of Appeal’s final judgment, declared Crossley Holdings the rightful owner.

Principal Secretary for Lands, Nixon Korir, admitted to the Committee that the Ministry registered the 2021 ELC judgment while ignoring the earlier, superior Court of Appeal ruling.

"This amounts to an admission that the land registration system gave effect to a lower court decision that directly contradicted a binding superior court determination," the report states.

Even more alarming, the original deed file went missing and had to be reconstructed using a Deed of Indemnity from Crossley Holdings—the very party whose acquisition is steeped in allegations of fraud.

When the Directors of Crossley Holdings, Sukhwinder Singh Chatte and Buggar Singh, appeared before the Committee in March 2026, they failed to provide evidence of the Sh752 million payment. Chatte claimed the money was paid to Saxena’s lawyer and to Saxena himself in India.

However, the Committee noted that no trace of the funds has been found at the High Court, the Registrar of the High Court, or the National Treasury. The Ministry of Lands also admitted it "could not establish whether any payments were made."

Following the 2011 Court of Appeal ruling, the DPP and EACC charged Crossley’s directors and a Deputy Court Registrar with conspiracy to defraud and fraudulent acquisition of public property. However, parliamentary records reveal that on May 30, 2022, the Director of Public Prosecutions abruptly withdrew the criminal charges, allowing the accused to walk free despite the apex court’s findings of forgery and fraud.

Despite the Court of Appeal’s 2011 ruling, the Executive branch attempted to bypass the courts. At its meeting on December 17, 2024, the Cabinet directed an out-of-court settlement. The terms dictated that the Government withdraw its pending appeals, while Crossley would abandon its Sh6 billion mesne profits claim and cede 2,000 acres for a Special Economic Zone.

When a proposed consent was drafted, only Crossley’s lawyers signed it. Owiti, Otieno & Ragot Advocates, acting for Miwani Sugar Company, declined to sign on "legal and ethical grounds." Lawyer David Otieno cautioned the Receiver Manager that implementing an unlawful directive could result in prosecution.

The Committee also uncovered a glaring gap in the government's own ownership chain. Records show that 51 per cent of Miwani Sugar Company’s shares were held by Vanessa Associates Incorporated, but the transfer of these shares to the National Treasury was never completed, leaving the state’s ownership technically incomplete.

The legal and political manoeuvring has taken a devastating toll on the people of Miwani. Following Crossley’s forceful takeover in June 2025, 93 workers were unlawfully terminated in violation of the Employment Act. Their total claims for damages, severance pay, and salary arrears amount to Sh116.1 million.

Meanwhile, former workers who were in receivership have been awaiting terminal dues for nearly 23 years, with debts estimated at Sh87 million as far back as 2007.

The dispute has also turned violent. The deployment of the Rapid Deployment Unit (RDU) to facilitate the interests of a private entity has resulted in tragedy.

"In Chemursoi, five farmers were arrested and are in court, while in Kimwani-Chemelil three people were killed and many others were injured by the RDU," farmers told the Committee during its fact-finding visit in April 2026.

The Kenya Sugarcane Growers Association warned that failure to resolve this matter fairly would be seen as "state-sanctioned dispossession of a vulnerable rural community." The Miwani community reiterated their historical claim to the land, tracing ownership back to pre-colonial settlements and arguing that colonial-era leases had long expired.

The parliamentary committee has issued sweeping recommendations to correct the historical and legal injustices.

The Cabinet has been urged to withdraw its December 2024 memorandum proposing the out-of-court settlement. The Chief Justice is recommended to issue administrative directives to uphold the 2011 Court of Appeal decision, preventing a lower court from overturning a final, binding judgment.

The Registrar of Titles has been directed to invoke the law and expunge all entries linking the property to the fraudulent 2007 auction. Crossley Holdings directors have been given a strict 30-day ultimatum to produce verifiable evidence of the Sh752 million payment.

Addressing the severe human cost, the Labour CS has been ordered to facilitate the immediate payment of Sh116.1 million owed to the 93 unlawfully sacked workers. The Inspector General of Police and IPOA have been directed to investigate the deadly RDU deployment.

"We have seen for ourselves the carcass of what was once a giant lifeline for the Miwani Community," the community submitted to the Committee.

The report now awaits debate and adoption in the National Assembly. Whether its recommendations will be implemented, and whether the ghosts of Miwani will finally be laid to rest, remains to be seen.