Mustafa Juma

Details have emerged of how Deputy President William Ruto-owned Weston Hotel colluded with two firms to grab the hotel land in Lang’ata, that is now valued at billions of money.

According to Court documents filed by Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA), Ruto’s Weston Hotel colluded with Priority Ltd and Monene Investment Ltd to obtain the land.

In a detailed report by the Standard Newspaper, KCAA in its new case filings claim 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.

According to KCAA, there is no consent from the Commissioner of Lands approving the alleged sale, and no stamp duty was paid to seal the purchase process.

“Other questionable circumstances show that the second respondent (Weston) was actually a party to fraud perpetrated by the third and fourth respondent (Priority and Monene) …. This court cannot defer to individual claims by land grabbers where it is proved that the title was issued to grab a public land, in this case, public land entrusted to Directorate of Civil Aviation (DCA) for the public to ensure safety in air navigation and incidental purposes,” the aviation authority argues in its court papers filed in the Lands Court in Nairobi.

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 the ownership record is deliberately scrambled to conceal the fraud.

KCAA further notes that Priority was still applying for permit approvals in April 2008, a year after the same land was registered in favour of Weston.

The contested property, LR No 209/14372, was registered under Weston on June 13, 2007.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.

Weston, in its reply to the case, had attached a payment receipt as proof that it had paid survey fees for the contested piece of land.

However, the civil aviation agency argues that the receipt indicates that the paid amount was for an unsurveyed plot, and is a different property. 

According to the authority, its land had been previously surveyed and had a reference number .KCAA 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.

According to the aviation authority, receipts in Weston’s replying affidavit indicate that it paid for the survey on April 30, 2002, while a deed plan number 234961 in favour of Priority and Monene is dated April 12, 2001.

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.