Environment and Land Court at Nairobi has ordered former President Daniel Arap Moi to present his original land documents.
Justice Samson Okong’o declined to admit as evidence a photocopy of a sale agreement for a parcel of 16 hectares of land valued at Sh1.6 Billion until the original document is presented.
The document was allegedly signed by the retired President 22 years ago.
[caption caption="File image of former President Daniel Moi"]
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Justice Okong'o upheld an objection by lawyers William Arusei and Innocent Muganda that the original agreement is produced in court.
They insisted that if the document is not presented, Moi should be summoned to appear in court to prove that the signature in the sale agreement between him and Tulip properties Limited was his.
Issuing the order, the judge directed the managing director of Tulip Properties Limited, Jaswan Singh Rai, to also produce the original sale agreement, which was registered at the Lands ministry, for the sale of the property in Embakasi, Nairobi.
According to Mr Arusei, the Registrar of Titles who signed the sale agreement presented to him by Rai, through his lawyer Virinder Goswani, ought to also appear before the court to prove the signature was his.
“In the absence of the original document, we want Mr Moi in the dock and the Registrar of Titles to prove the signatures in the document produced in court are theirs,” Mr Arusei stated.
The judge, therefore, directed Rai to endeavor to produce the original documents, which his lawyer George Oraro claimed were "somewhere."
Muganda told the judge that after the admission of the sale agreement documents at the Land Registry Office, the original one is usually returned to the owner.
Four traders are alleging that they applied for the land and it was allocated to them in 1988 by the Commissioner of Lands.
However, Arusei told the court that they want to prove the authenticity of the two titles being held by Rai and the other traders: Laboso, Nur Makaka, and Hassan.
Rai insisted that he was issued with a title deed of the land in dispute after he bought it from the former Head of State Moi at Sh25 Million.
[caption caption="File image of retired president Daniel Moi and President Uhuru Kenyatta"]
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