A lawyer has moved to court seeking leave to institute private prosecution against three individuals in a fraud case involving a five-acre piece of land valued at over Sh300 million along Mombasa Road in Nairobi.
In his pleadings before Milimani Senior Principal Magistrate Robinson Ondieki, lawyer Jason Ondabu stated that the Director of Public Prosecutions has yet to charge the suspects despite having approved charges against them 10 months ago.
Ondabu, who is acting on behalf of Mwadi Women Entrepreneurs Limited, says his clients are the registered owners of the land known as LR No 209/10211 (IR No 231055/1), which he says was fraudulently transferred to a brokerage firm.
Detectives from the Land Fraud Investigation unit, who probed the matter, concluded that Mwadi Women were lawfully awarded the lease for the land.
That information was confirmed by both the Ministry of Lands and the National Land Commission, which allocated the property to Mwadi Women Entrepreneurs Limited on February 6, 2019.
The DPP, in a letter dated July 10, 2024 recommended that the directors of the brokerage firm be charged with obtaining land registration by false pretenses.
Similarly, the prosecutor directed that the lands registrars who registered the transfer in favour of the brokerage firm also be charged with abuse of office.
They are all listed as interested parties in Ondabu’s petition.
The petitioners alleged that the DPP has yet to commence criminal proceedings against the suspects, and as such, they should be allowed to initiate private prosecution.
“Unless this honourable court grants the orders sought herein, the applicant and the entire Kenyan citizenship will suffer irreparable loss and damage,” Ondabu argued.
He said NLC allocated the land to Mwadi Women who paid Sh3.8 million as per the conditions of the letter of allotment before the Lands Ministry issued a deed plan No 446961, lease and certificate for the same parcel on June 3, 2021.
However, on April 24, 2024, the brokerage firm forwarded to the ministry a purported stamp duty of Sh8 million together with a land clearance certificate.
On July 1, 2024, Lands PS wrote to the DCI seeking further verification. It was later confirmed that no stamp duty of Sh8 million had been paid as was claimed by the brokerage firm.
Instead, only Sh240 had been paid for the agreement of sale and not for the transfer of the property.
Ondabu argued that since the prosecutor has yet to charge the suspects, the rules of natural justice require that private prosecution is allowed.
Magistrate Ondieki last week directed the parties to file and serve their submissions.
