Former Laikipia East Member of Parliament Anthony Mutahi has been charged with stealing a title deed from the Ministry of Lands headquarters at Ardhi House.
The former legislator appeared before Nairobi Chief Magistrate Martha Mutuku on Thursday, January 14, 2021.
Mutahi was charged with stealing the title deed of a parcel of land valued at Ksh18.8 million.
He, however, denied the charges preferred against him and was set free on a Ksh300,000 cash bail or Ksh1 million bond.
The legislator is not new to controversies centred around land ownership, as he was in court over another tussle in 2020.
In August, the former lawmaker was sentenced to a six-month civil jail for building a house on a disputed piece of land.
He had been charged for interfering with the land suit between him and Stuart Richard Cunningham in Nanyuki despite court orders.
“Mutahi is hereby committed to civil jail for a term of six months for contempt of court for deliberately disobeying orders of this court given on November 8, 2017,” Justice Mary Oundo had ruled.
The complainant had filed an application under urgency at the Environment and Land Court in Nyeri seeking to have the former legislator committed to civil jail for developing the land in Nanyuki against an order issued by a court.
In 2016, Judge Joseph Onguto of the High Court at Milimani, Nairobi, ordered the MP not to interfere with the land until the ownership dispute was determined.
Similarly, in 2017, Judge Lucy Waithaka restrained the former MP Mutahi and his representatives from interfering with the land pending hearing and determination of the case.
The former legislator had argued before the court that he was supposed to occupy 18 acres of the land while the complainant claimed that the land was invaded by an armed gang in a bid to take over the property.
Cunningham had at the time admitted that he did not have a title deed to prove ownership of the land 25 years after he says he bought the land.
In his case, he sued the registrar of lands for issuing a title deed to a third party (Mutahi).
