Four Nairobi self-help group officials charged over Ksh.1billion land fraud

Four officials of a self-help group based in Nairobi were on Friday arraigned in court and charged over their alleged involvement in a Ksh.1 billion land fraud.

The four – namely former Kayole chief Alexander Hoops, Patrobas Awino, Peter Gitau and Peter Njoroge – were arrested following complaints filed at the DCI’s Land Fraud Investigations Unit in 2018 by Sowesava Self-Help Group and Gidjoy Company Limited.

The suspects pleaded not guilty to charges of forging the title deed of the Donholm Estate parcel of land, its lease and an allotment letter.

Detectives have established that by 2019 Gidjoy Company Limited bought the land from Continental Limited then legally transferred the ownership to its name.

However, Sowesava officials maintained that Continental Limited surrendered the parcel of land to the Nairobi County government, upon which they (Sowesava) were then issued with an allotment letter and title deed.

The self help group then went ahead to subdivide the parcel into 100 portions which they were in the process of selling to unsuspecting members of the public.

“Meticulous investigations revealed that both the allotment letter and the mother title deed presented by Sowesava had been forged, leading to the arrest of four of its officials in 2019,” read a statement from the sleuths.

“However, the four filed an injunction before the High Court, which was heard and upon determination, a ruling was made that the suspects plead to their charges on August 5, 2021.”

The suspects appeared before Chief Magistrate Martha Mutuku at the Milimani Law Courts and each of them was slapped with a Ksh.2 million bond or a cash bail of Ksh.1 million.