Deputy President William Ruto's posh hotel, Weston, has been dragged into another scandal involving land in Westlands Nairobi.
According to Nation, the property number of the land on which Weston Hotel stands was reportedly used to irregularly acquire the 2.7-acre parcel in Westlands.
Further reports indicate that DP Ruto's ally and business associate, Patrick Osero, allegedly used the Interim Reference (I.R.) number to acquire the Westlands prime property.
An I.R. number is usually issued by the office of the Director of Survey when land is mapped out before the title deed is issued.
While Ruto prepared to defend his ownership of the Weston land in April last year, a judgement was being delivered on the Westlands property, which had been in court for 12 years, by Justice Kossy Bor.
She ruled that Osero’s company, Pridegrove Investments Limited, irregularly acquired the land using an I.R. number that had already been allocated to the Weston land.
In December 2006, a company known as Southfork Investments sued Osero’s company seeking to recover the land.
Reports have it that Southfork bought the land from Sky Properties Limited in 1994 for Ksh 2 million. They, however, delayed to develop it due to the fact that the government's lease was to expire six years later.
Southfork almost lost the 2.7-acre property valued at approximately Ksh1.3 billion in its first attempt to renew the lease.
However, a new ownership document was created and registered to Pridegrove upon Southfork's decision to surrender its title deed to the Lands commissioner during the application to extend the government lease.
Nairobi County confirmed that the land belonged to Sky Properties, which legally transferred it to Southfork in 1994.
"There were no records at the lands office pertaining to Pridegrove’s title. The deed plan annexed to Pridegrove’s title was disowned by the director of survey,” City Hall disclosed.
Justice Elijah Obaga issued temporary orders barring Sky Properties and Pridegrove from developing the land until the court resolves the row.
