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USIU sues retired President Moi in city land row


Retired President Daniel arap Moi has been sued in a land saga pitting a university against a private developer who claims he bought the property from Mr Moi.

The United States International University has sued Mr Moi together with Maestro Connections Health Systems Limited as well as the chief lands registrar.

The university is questioning the legality of records purportedly reconstructed in favour of the retired president to show that he still owned the disputed property.

PROOF OF OWNERSHIP

It has also challenged Mr Moi to table receipts of land rates paid to the Nairobi City Council since 1982 as proof of his ownership of the land. Mr Moi has been accused of obtaining a title deed irregularly after purporting to have lost the original.

At the same time the private developer at the centre of the dispute, Dr George Kiongera, who says he bought the property from Mr Moi, suffered a major setback when a judge reversed an order he had obtained requiring guards stationed at the site by USIU to leave.

The order was reversed after the court found it had been “misled”.

Dr Kiongera was found to have obtained the order “without disclosing that the land in dispute was being claimed by USIU and that there was a pending suit in court prohibiting construction at the site”.

The court extended the prohibition against any construction on the land until the dispute was settled.

FATE OF STUDENTS

On Tuesday, senior counsel Paul Muite pleaded with the court to hear and determine the matter quickly because the fate of over 5,000 students at the institution hangs in the balance.

Mr Moi is wanted in court to explain how he obtained a provisional title in his name against the backdrop of a paper trial showing that he surrendered the property and detailing how the ownership of the property has changed hands since 1982.

The suit states that in 1984, Mr Moi surrendered two original certificates and was issued with one title for the consolidated land LR 12597.

When Mr Moi surrendered the original title of LR no 12422/19 for consolidation and amalgamation, the original title could not get lost or destroyed, the suit papers read.

The chief lands registrar could there for not issue a provisional title over non-existent land described as LR 12422/19. As such the developer and Mr Moi could not transact on non-existent land as it had already changed ownership.