The Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA) has accused Deputy President William Ruto’s hotel, Weston Ltd, of colluding with two firms to grab its land in Nairobi’s Lang’ata area.
In new court filings, KCAA claims that inconsistencies in the documents produced by Weston, failure to produce any valid sale agreement and transfer instruments, and allegedly ignoring the Ndung’u report’s red flag on grabbed public properties indicated it played a part in grabbing the land.
While detailing gaps in Weston’s papers, KCAA argues that although Weston claims to be an innocent purchaser, there is no consent from the Commissioner of Lands approving the alleged sale, and no stamp duty was paid to seal the purchase process.
KCAA says two development plans submitted by Weston contradict each other.
It claims that although the two plans were issued on the same day, October 17, 1997, they are for different plots.
It further claims that the ownership record is deliberately scrambled to conceal the fraud.
According to KCAA, Priority was still applying for permit approvals in April 2008, a year after the same land was registered in favour of Weston.
KCAA lawyers, Otiende Amolo and Stephen Ligunya, argue that Priority could not have continued to deal with the same property after its legal interest in the land ceased.
It further questions how Priority and Monene managed to get a survey document (a deed plan) for the contested land more than a year before they paid for the survey, a pointer to fraud.
In a fresh twist to the case, KCAA says Priority and Monene illegally got an allotment for 0.7 hectares of the land, but in their final survey document, the piece mysteriously increased to 0.7733Ha.
Meanwhile, KCAA argues that KCB can pursue Weston to recover a Sh1 billion loan issued to the firm.
Weston secured several loans from the lender using the land now being claimed by KCAA as security.
Weston maintains that it was an innocent buyer of value.
It claims that it bought the land at Sh10 million after carrying out due diligence to ensure there was a valid title document.
At the same time, the National Lands Commission (NLC) has yet to file its reply to the case despite being at the centre of the scandal.
NLC had declared that the land where Weston sits belongs to the public, but directed that the hotel pays KCAA for its market value to legalise the ownership