How former MP lost Sh2.8 million in fake land deal

The widow of former Kuria East MP, the late Shadrack Manga testified in a case where their former workman was charged with allegedly defrauding them Sh2.8 million in a bogus land deal.

Anne Manga told Kibra Senior Principal Magistrate Samson Temu how the accused Geoffrey Rutoh and his accomplice Edison Bundotich allegedly duped them they had been allotted property in Karen, Nairobi but were having problems converting the letter of allotment into a title deed.

After meeting Rutoh and Bundotich the couple would send them facilitation money to process the allotment letter into four distinct properties, each measuring one acre in size.

"The condition of our facilitation was that my husband and I would be allocated one of the four acres at no extra charge beyond the facilitation costs. The duo also physically showed us the property in question," said the widow.

Ms Manga testified that they decided that a formal agreement had to be prepared in order to reflect the terms of engagement.

She said that during the events of September 2012 they later appeared before their lawyer Thomas Agimba’s office where an agreement was executed by all parties.

"Further a supplementary agreement was executed the same month and it was agreed that monies would be collected through my offices and appropriately signed for on receipt by the duo," recounted Manga.

But as months went by the couple realised that the transfer of the property to them was taking long as it became difficult getting hold of Rutoh and Bundotich.

"Whenever they needed funds they would call my husband. It was also a busy time for my husband because he was involved with the campaigns for the 2013 elections where he was elected," she told court. 

The couple was alarmed towards the end of 2013 when Rutoh and Bundotich started claiming that they were unable to conclude the process because a previous benefactor of Asian origin who was also involved in facilitating the conclusion of the transaction was demanding a refund of monies owed to him by the duo.

"Further the story changed to the effect that the said Asian was also a beneficial owner of the company that owned the property," said the widow.

A search at the lands registry confirmed their fears that they had been conned after records indicated that the suit property was registered in another entity's name earmarked as public property and no decision had been made to alienate it by the government.

Following the turn of events, Manga told court that Rutoh and Bundotich became elusive. "They started avoiding our calls and those of our advocates," she said.

Rutoh was charged in 2015 with three counts of making a document without lawful authority, uttering a false document and obtaining money by false pretense. He denied the charges and was released on a cash bail of Sh200,000.

In the first count it was stated that on August 29,2008 at unknown place within the country jointly with another not before the court with intent to defraud and without lawful authority he made a certain document namely letter of allotment for a residential plot in Karen, purporting it to be a genuine document issued by the department of lands.

The second charge stated that on September 24, 2012 in Kilimani area, jointly with another not before court knowingly and fraudulently uttered a certain document namely a letter of allotment for residential plot in Karen to Shadrack Manga purporting it to be a genuine document issued by department of lands.

The third count facing Rutoh is that on different dates between September 24,2012 to December 2012 at Kilimani with intent to defraud, jointly with another not before court he obtained from Manga Sh2.82 million by falsely pretending that he was in a position to transfer him a residential plot in Karen, a fact he knew to be false.

Magistrate Temu allowed an application by the defense side to file their submissions in 21 days when the hearing of the case will resume.