The EACC said Ngilu and eight other Ministry of Lands officials should be charged with various criminal offences for allegedly benefitting from the double allocation of the 134-acre land parcel in Karen valued at Sh8 billion. Photo/ FILE
NAIROBI, Kenya, Jun 11 – The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) has recommended the prosecution of suspended Lands Cabinet Secretary Charity Ngilu over the Karen land saga.
In its recommendation to the Director of Public Prosecutions, the EACC said Ngilu and eight other Ministry of Lands officials should be charged with various criminal offences for allegedly benefitting from the double allocation of the 134-acre land parcel in Karen valued at Sh8 billion.
The land is currently at the centre of a court case pitting businessman Horatius Da Gama Rose against former NSSF Managing Trustee Jos Konzolo; both of whom claim to be in possession of the land’s ownership documents.
Da Gama Rose has named eight defendants in the case. The court has since barred the defendants and their agents from interfering with the land in dispute, pending hearing and determination of the case filed by lawyer Cecil Miller.
The Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (CORD) however insists that the land is public property and claimed to be in possession of evidence implicating Ngilu and other Ministry of Lands officials in its illegal allocation.
READ: CORD says ready to back Karen land grab claims
Accusations Ngilu denied, directing the Opposition leaders to present any evidence they might be in possession of to the EACC.
READ: Ngilu takes on CORD over Karen land grab claims
In October, High Court Justice Nyambura Gacheru directed the Officer in-Charge of the Lang’ata Division to enforce an order barring any development on the Karen land pending the resolution of the case pitting Da Gama Rose against Konzolo.
READ: Langata OCPD directed to enforce Court order on Karen land
Last month the EACC recommended the closure of an inquiry into allegations that Ngilu conspired with Likoni land owner Evanson Waitiki to inflate the cost of settling squatters on his land by Sh110 million.
Myta Limited also accused Ngilu of, “depriving him,” of land along State House Crescent road together with the Chief Land Registrar Sara Mwendwa, officers under her, the Director of Survey and its officers Julius Kitur and Albert Kitur.
An accusation Ngilu denied when she was summoned to the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission for questioning.
“”That piece of land in 1965 was given by the government to Nairobi City Council with the express condition that it will be used as a children playing ground,” she said.
“Should it not be used for that purpose, it will be reverted back to the government…there are many people who are holding what I believe are fake title deeds who are still fighting to get that piece of land,” she defended.
READ: Daylong grilling for Ngilu over graft at EACC
Ngilu is among five cabinet secretaries who were suspended by President Uhuru Kenyatta in March to allow the EACC conclude its investigations into corruption complaints levelled against them.
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