Land dispute disrupts former MP's funeral preparations

Former Kangema MP Tiras Ngahu [Courtesy]

A resident of Tuthu has obtained a court order to block the burial of former Kangema MP Tiras Nyingi Ngahu on a piece of land he claims belongs to him.

Gabriel Macharia obtained the orders that restrained Mrs Lydia Njoki Maguta from burying the late Ngahu in the disputed parcel of land Loc.9/ Kiruri/1262, as excised from land parcel Loc. 9/ Kiruri/459 till the application lodged is heard and determined.

Kangema Senior Principal Magistrate Peter Kiama ordered for an inter party hearing on March 9.

“A temporary injunction is hereby issued restraining Ms Maguta, her servants or agents from disposing of the body of the Ngahu in the suit land,” ruled the magistrate on February 15.

The former lawmaker who served Kangema between 2012 and 2017 passed on at a Nairobi hospital on February 12.

In the suit papers, Macharia in the certificate of urgency application argued he will suffer an irreparable loss, if the burial takes place as the family holds the original title of the suit land Loc.9/Kiruri/1262, which was fraudulently subdivided.

“The suit land is a subject in a rather contentious court battle. (Murang’a ELC No 47 of 2017 and Murang’a O.S E021 OF 2021,” said Macharia’s lawyer Robert Ndung’u in an affidavit.

The original title deed, Macharia said, is held by a bank after it was charged after his late father Anjelo Kanyuanjohi Macharia in 1989 for a Sh200,000 loan.

On January 21, 2014, Macharia was granted a letter of administrator in the estate of the late Anjelo.  

Ngahu bought the land measuring approximately 5 acres at Sh2.4 million in March 2008 and it has been developed with a mansion estimated at Sh15 million.

In the papers, a former senior lands registrar has been mentioned to have led Ngahu to buy the land he later developed.

Murang’a DCI in 2011 started an investigation on a land fraud case after Macharia reported a forgery matter involving the suit land.