Kibaki-era PS charged with Sh350m land fraud

Former Internal Security Permanent Secretary Dave Mwangi has been taken to court over fraud involving a 3.7 acres in Nairobi valued at Sh350 million.

Mwangi was charged with five counts of fraud including conspiracy to commit felony, forgery and obtaining money by false pretense.

The charge sheet showed he conspired with others who were not in court to defraud Hamsita Patel T/A Holloway Properties Limited of a parcel of land along Mombasa Road measuring about 1.591 hectares and valued at Sh350 million.

This he did by forging a grant LR NO.20261 IR NO.80202 dated November 23, 2001 purporting it to be a genuine grant, the charge sheet shows.

On the count of forgery, Mwangi was accused of forging the signature for former commissioner of lands Sammy Mwaita, claiming the former official signed the grant.

He is also accused of forging the signature of Jane Kanja, a commissioner of lands, and uttering a false document to investigators.

Mwangi also faces a fifth count of obtaining Sh12 million from Onda Concrete Limited by falsely pretending he was able to lease for them the said land.

He denied the charges before Milimani magistrate Benmark Ekhubi and was granted a Sh20 million bond with an alternative bail of Sh5 million.

The court set the matter for mention on January 21 for pretrial directions. Mwangi was arrested from his Karen residence in Nairobi and detained at Muthaiga police station prior to his arraignment.

The Director of Public Prosecutions approved charges against him after police investigations showed Holloway Properties Limited whose director if is Hasmita Patel is the registered proprietor of the said land.

ANGLO-LEASING SCANDAL

Mwangi served as Permanent Secretary during former President Mwai Kibaki’s administration. He took over the role of PS from Cyrus Gituai when Chris Murungaru was the minister.

His arraignment on Wednesday and the subsequent plea-taking came barely 12 months after his acquittal in the Sh7 billion Anglo-Leasing scandal.

After running for two decades, the anti-corruption court magistrate Felix Kombo dropped the case against Mwangi and his co-accused citing lack of evidence and reluctance on the part of key witnesses to testify.

The former PS had been charged alongside tycoons Deepak Kamani and his brother, Rashmi and former top civil servants, including former permanent secretaries Joseph Onyonka and Joseph Magari and the late David Mwiraria who served as the Minister for Finance in Kibaki’s government.