Five suspects freed on Ksh.100K cash bail in Ksh.150M land fraud case

Five suspects were on Friday charged before the Chief Magistrate Court in Mombasa in connection with a fraudulent land registration scheme involving a 12-acre parcel in Miritini valued at over Ksh.150 million.

The accused - Edward Marenye Kiguru, Abubakar Madey, Joseph Matheka, Mahmoud Abdalla Mahmoud, and Mohamed Saleh Hassan - are alleged to have fraudulently transferred land originally registered under Kingorani Investment Limited in the early 1990s.

According to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), the case arose following a complaint regarding the eviction of the complainant’s employees from the disputed property.

Subsequent investigations revealed irregularities in the land’s registration, prompting the DCI to forward the case to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP), which approved the charges.

Edward Marenye Kiguru, a registered private surveyor in Mombasa, was arrested on April 7, 2025. Mahmoud Abdalla Mahmoud and Mohamed Saleh Hassan were apprehended in Nairobi after allegedly attempting to flee from authorities. They were located and arrested at a hotel hideout before being transferred back to Mombasa.

Joseph Matheka, a land administrator previously based in Kilifi County and most recently stationed in Eldoret, was arrested at his Kangundo Road residence.

Meanwhile, Abubakar Madey, a private registered physical planner based in Mombasa, surrendered to police after a warrant for his arrest was issued.

The suspects all pleaded not guilty, and the court granted each of them a bond of Ksh.500,000 or an alternative cash bail of Ksh.100,000, along with one surety of a similar amount.