The High Court in Nairobi placed a caveat on land linked to Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua further barring a Ministry of Lands official from making transactions on the disputed parcel.
While issuing orders, Justice Oguttu Mboya of the Environment and Land Court ordered the official not to sell or transfer the land valued at Ksh 1.5 billion until the matter is heard and determined.
The ruling was issued after the DP asked the court to bar the govt official from transacting the land, near Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, which he claimed to be the rightful owner.
Through his lawyers, Gachagua told the court that he acquired the land at Ksh24 million, from a company owned by two individuals.
He further argued that the official from the Ministry of Lands fraudulently forged papers to transfer the land to himself and a company linked to him in 2019.
They also reportedly forged documents to challenge the ownership of the five-acre land.
"The official claimed that he acquired the land in 1994 but after careful analysis, the commission dismissed his claims and found that my (Gachagua) title was legally acquired.
"Even after the commission dismissed his claims to the land, the official has never taken any steps to appeal the decision,” the DP told the court.
Despite noting that the land's official withdrew a case challenging ownership of the land in June, the DP's legal team stated that they would pursue the matter to its logical conclusion.
“The official took advantage of his position to transfer the title of the land to his company where he is the director and deliberately tampered with the records whereby any official search indicates that Mr Gachagua is not the owner,”
“After tampering with the records at the lands office and illegally obtaining the second title and thereby purportedly extinguishing the plaintiff’s title from the records, the defendants then withdrew the suit without the same being determined on merits,” Gachagua's lawyer stated.
The case is set to be heard on October 13.
