The property dispute pitting former Vice President Moody Awori and the widow of the former Nairobi PC James Mburu has taken a new twist.
Reports from the Business Daily on Thursday, January 16, indicate that the Ksh8 billion Karen land at the centre of the dispute belongs to neither Awori nor the widow fighting for it.
The land has instead been identified as belonging to a former managing trustee of the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) identified as Josephat Konzolo.
Lawyer Macmillan Mutiso, who processed the land transaction, informed Justice Elijah Obaga that the 134-acre piece of land in contention was sold to Konzolo's firm by a vendor identified as John Mugo Kamau in 1998 at Ksh96 million.
This, he stated, was established when a search at the Lands Registry established Kamau as the initial owner of the property, and not the two claiming it.
"I conducted a search at the Lands office then established that the land was registered in the name of Kamau," the court heard.
In April 2018, Moody Awori and his firm, Muchanga Investment Limited, had insisted before court that the land parcel in question belonged to him.
This is not the first time Awori is embroiled in a controversy to do with prime property in the country.
In 2018, Awori reportedly accused Felix Mboya, Jack Amayo Buong, John Amayo Okoto and Maragaret Achieng’ of trespassing on a piece of land he claims to have acquired in 1999 on a 99-year lease and for which he had been paying annual land rates of Ksh48,000.
Reports at the time indicated that the four had encroached into the piece of land in Kisumu in 2010 and had spent millions developing it before Awori realised it.
The judge handling the case ruled that the four and their agents be stopped from selling or developing the land pending the hearing and determination of the case.
