Nakuru County: Why we declined to renew War Memorial's hospital lease

 The County Government of Nakuru has outlined the reasons why it declined to renew the Certificate of Lease for a 25-acre plot of land in Milimani Estate, where War Memorial Hospital is located. However, the hospital's lease was renewed for 50 years on April 23, 2021, by the National Land Registry office in Nairobi, a decision that Nakuru County disputes.

County Secretary Samuel Mwaura testified yesterday before Chief Magistrate Elizabeth Juma that documents submitted by the hospital's private management contained discrepancies. Mwaura was testifying in a case in which hospital directors Roger Joslyn, Dr. Simon Mwangi, and Malcolm Bell are charged with forgery, fraud, and abuse of office in connection with the lease renewal process. They are facing charges alongside land administrators Peter Nzuki and Stephen Kihenjo, Nyandarua County Assembly Speaker Steve Waiganjo, and businessman Kipkemboi Marindich.

“We verified the receipts and documents submitted to us by the hospital and confirmed that they did not originate from the Nakuru County office,” Mwaura testified. He said they disputed the stamps, signatures, and other documents, believing them to be forged.

According to Mwaura, one of the documents used for the renewal, which listed the directors of the hospital, appeared strange to them. He pointed out that the document indicated that, as of 1923, Dr. Mwangi, Bell, and Joslyn were directors, along with others. “We interrogated the document and obtained their identity cards, only to establish that all of the directors were born after 1923, making it impossible for them to have been directors at that time,” he said.

Mwaura further explained that he was informed by the departments of health and land that one of the reasons the county rejected the lease renewal was because there were plans to register the lease in the county’s favour. “The county government had a plan to expand the Rift Valley Provincial General Hospital (PGH) Annex, which is adjacent to War Memorial Hospital,” he said.

A letter seen by The Standard indicated that Dr. Mwangi was born more than 20 years after 1923.

Mwaura added that on March 15, 2022, his predecessor, Benjamin Njoroge, had written to the National Land Commission (NLC) requesting the disputed land be reserved for the county to develop a specialised hospital. “Having discovered that the documents, including the lease, did not originate from the county, we conducted an internal investigation into how the lease was renewed and found that the application was made in 2020,” Mwaura testified.

He explained that through Nakuplan Consultancy, War Memorial Hospital applied for an extension, but the application was never approved after Collins Ogola, then Nakuru East Sub-County Physical Planner, raised an objection on February 6, 2020. Ogola’s letter pointed out a conflict between PGH Annex and War Memorial Hospital over land ownership, urging the issue be resolved.

Due to the objection and the discovery of the land dispute, Mwaura said the County Executive Committee Member (CEC) for land declined to approve the extension. "We had no choice but to question the validity of the lease in the hospital’s possession, as it would not have been possible for the county to reject it," he said. "We believed it was a forgery. I wrote to the Land Registrar in Nakuru and the Directorate of Criminal Investigations to investigate the matter."

Mwaura added that in 2023, the registrar provided them with documents showing that as of 1923, the hospital had directors who were either deceased or no longer part of the board. He also noted that some of the directors listed were government officials, such as the Provincial Officer for Health and the Regional Commissioner.

“We wondered why the directors representing the national government and Nakuru municipality had been removed, and the new directorship did not include anyone from the government,” he testified.

Following the investigations, the seven individuals were arrested and charged. Mwaura’s testimony continues, as the court had declined to suspend the proceedings, despite related civil cases before the Environment and Land Court in Nyandarua and the Court of Appeal in Nakuru.

Mwaura will continue with his testimony tomorrow.