A Chinese contractor is embroiled in a heated court battle with a Nairobi businessman over a Ksh150 million seven-acre parcel of land near the Nairobi Inland Container Terminal.
A report published by Daily Nation on Friday, February 7, detailed that Francis Nyaga Njeru, a renown businessman, claimed that China Road and Bridge Corporation illegally leased the land from a third party, ARJ Capital, which claimed to have ownership.
Njeru had filed a trespass claim against the Chinese company whose contractor had occupied the land since 2015.
ARJ Capital is reportedly associated with a top government official.
According to court documents, the prime land was also fraudulently acquired by individuals who are facing six counts of fraud in court.
The duo forged ownership, alleging that they had leased it from the Chinese contractor.
ARJ Capital's application to be enjoined in the case was declined by the judge who ruled that sworn affidavits in the case had conflicting details on the landowner.
“Where the documentary evidence presented by the applicant appears to be fraudulent on its face, the court should not compromise the integrity by admitting a party whose intention is to scuttle the proceedings or use the court process to advance a criminal enterprise,” Land Court Judge Bernard Eboso ruled.
The Nairobi businessman, Njeru, is not new to cases involving land fraud.
In 2016, in leaked audio, he was involved in a heated argument with Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko over a demolition exercise in Nairobi's South B area.
Sonko had to seek the intervention of President Uhuru Kenyatta, who halted the demolition exercise. This was after Sonko and Njeru had traded insults in the leaked audio.
