Central Organisation and Trade Union (Cotu) boss Francis Atwoli has been dragged into a five-acre land fraud case against a 64-year-old widow, as seen in court documents and sale of land agreement by Kenyans.co.ke.
The widow, Eunice Alkhaba, from Mumias East, Kakamega, claims her brother in law Pandi Oponyo sold the land to Atwoli who she claims was aware of the shady deal.
Alkhaba also claimed that the unionist compromised officials of the Mumias land control board who approved forged documents full of altered details.
Reported under O.B number 16/16/09/019 at Mumias Police Station in September 2011, Oponyo is accused of stealing the title deed of his deceased brother, Jonah Ochami, pretending to be the rightful owner of the land in contention before selling it to Atwoli.
Alkhaba sued her brother in law Pandi in April 2017 for subdividing her land without her husband’s consent and later selling it to the powerful unionist, according to the court papers. Alkhaba went to court on behalf of her deceased husband reporting it as civil case number 35 of 2019.
In the affidavit, Alkhaba narrates that she had reached out to Atwoli who promised to revert the parcel of land but did not keep his word. Alkahaba also accuses the unionist of cutting down and selling 250 trees that were grown on the disputed parcel of land.
According to her, the trade unionist had allegedly tried to convince the deceased to sell him the parcel of land in 2011, before purchasing it three years later.
In the court documents, Atwoli is said to have obtained the land at a cost of Ksh1,250,000. The first Defendant, Pandi Oponyo, confessed that he indeed fraudulently obtained the title deed number E/WANGA/ISONGO/893.
He also agreed that he pretended to be Jonah Ochami (his deceased brother) and knowingly sold the parcel of land that wasn’t his to the COTU boss.
Atwoli later subdivided and sold it to a third party in 2018. The widow says she started pursuing the case after this development.
“Atwoli hashiki simu zangu tena. Ata sina pahali pa kulima (Atwoli no longer picks my calls and I don’t have a piece of land to farm),” the widow lamented in her sworn statement.
In February 2019, Alkhaba was arrested by police for causing alarm and threatening to harm the third party after she accosted him during a land survey.
A relative who spoke on condition of anonymity stated that the unionist forged the sale of land documents and even forced the late Jonah Ochami to append his signature on the sale of land documents.
The widow also claimed that Atwoli used his influence and directed Mumias Sugar company officials to pay him proceeds of the cane she had planted on her 5-acre parcel of land.
Contacted for comment by Kenyans.co.ke, Francis Atwoli rubbished the claims made by Akhaba saying, "the land was sold to me legally by Jonah (Akhaba’s husband) and his son. These are people who want to malign my name because they even took the matter to Deputy President Ruto."
Atwoli went further and told Kenyans.co.ke that he has not been sued and that he did not obtain the land through forgery. “If it was forgery they should have reported me to the police. I am a champion for social justice. I can not do such a thing.”
On claims that he refused to revert the land, the unionist replied, "the family came to me and I told them to simply pay the money with which I bought the land. They could not.”
Atwoli concluded by rubishing claims that he asked for a resale price of Ksh3,000,000 million.
The matter was reported before Mumias Senior Principal Magistrate F.M Nyakundi on Wednesday, September 4 2019 by Namatsi and Company Advocates.
