Langata deputy police chief Mwangi Kuria says the land will be manned on a 24-hour basis until the case in court is determined/MIKE KARIUKI
The police officers in four trucks were sent to the 134-acre piece of land on Friday afternoon to enforce a court order.
Langata deputy police Chief Mwangi Kuria says the land will be manned on a 24-hour basis until the case in court is determined.
“The order says I should remove everybody who was conducting any construction here and I have done so,” he affirmed. “I have warned them not to come back until the case is heard and decided before court.”
He said he had “deployed officers to take guard on a 24-hour basis.”
One of the developers who was on the site told Capital FM News that he intend to seek a legal redress since he had not been served with the eviction order.
“We are really wondering why he (businessman Da Gama Rose) is coming here to frustrate us. We have the legal documents that prove our ownership,” he stated on condition of anonymity.
“They should have served individual owners with the court order. I have already invested Sh1 million in putting up a perimeter wall.”
He watched helplessly as workers walked out of the plot under the close watch of armed police officers.
Asked from whom he bought the plot, he retorted “hii shamba inaweza kumeza (this land can ‘swallow’ you), it’s a long story.”
Leaders of the Opposition Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (CORD) have sensationally named top government officials and MPs as beneficiaries of the illegal allocation of the prime land valued at Sh8 billion.
Businessman Da Gama Rose is laying claim to the land. His lawyer Cecil Miller has obtained orders blocking further development of the land but the occupiers have previously disregarded the directive of the court to keep off the land.
The High Court on Monday directed the officer commanding Langata police division to enforce the court order barring any activity on the disputed land.
The court had on September 3 directed that any development or transactions on the land be halted until the petition filed by Da Gama Rose is heard and determined.
The Ministry of Lands, through their legal representative, however accused Da Gama Rose of engaging in “sideshows” and insisted that the matter proceed to a full hearing.
The Ministry through Deputy Chief Lands Registrar Geoffrey Swanya Birundu has identified Telesource as the registered owner of the land.
The National Land Commission, in a letter dated May 10, 2013, however identified Da Gama Rose as the rightful owner of the property.
Da Gama Rose claims to have purchased the land through his company Muchanga Investments Limited in 1982 at Sh1.2 million from Arnold Bradley.
Telesource on the other hand is said to have purchased the land from a John Kamau Mugo in 2005. Mugo has been enjoined in the suit and is expected to give testimony on how he acquired the land.
Da Gama Rose’s relative had to be accorded security on Monday after rowdy youths attacked him calling him a foreigner and demanding that his family stay off the controversial piece of property.
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