Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Renson Ingonga is in the spotlight over his next move in a criminal case involving ownership of a Sh300 million property in Nairobi, whose fraudulent dealings were discovered after an attempted bank auction.
The land was allegedly grabbed from Pansiba Limited by Abdorahman Huchamsa, alias Ahmed Nazil, alias Abdi, through forgery of documents, including title deed. The alleged fake titles were subsequently used as collateral for a bank loan on which the borrower defaulted, prompting the bank to exercise its statutory power of sale.
At that point, Pansiba learnt that its titles had been forged and triggered investigations by the Land Fraud Investigations Unit of the Directorate of Criminal Investigations in 2022.
Mr Abdorahman is facing four counts related to forgery of certificates of title documents with the intent to defraud Pansiba of its parcels of land measuring about 1.6 hectares. The land is at the centre of another criminal trial for businessman Jayesh Kotecha and Midland Hauliers and which the DPP has already been blocked from terminating.
Businessman Jayesh Kotecha at Milimani Law Court on June 3, 2021
Photo credit: Dennis Onsongo | Nation Media Group
Amid the ongoing criminal trial of Mr Abdorahman, which started in May 2024, is a request by the lender for withdrawal of the criminal case, a proposal that has been opposed by Pansiba and its director, Parminder Singh Sethi—the complainant and victim of the alleged fraud.
Through lawyer Ben Musundi, Pansiba has written to the DPP, saying the intended withdrawal would “undermine the rule of law, the administration of justice and constitutes a mockery of the criminal justice system”.
According to the lawyer, an examination of the evidence gathered by the DCI and witness statements against the accused person shows that the case has higher chances of securing a conviction. “We, therefore, object to any application for withdrawal of this matter, given that our client has lost the use of their land for over 10 years due to the fraud committed upon them. The investigations were painstaking and took at least 10 years,” Mr Musundi says in the letter.
He insists that the evidence against the accused is glaring and overwhelming. The letter is also copied to the DCI, the ombudsperson, the Attorney-General, the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission and the Public Service Commission.
The case revolves around claims that the land situated in the Kya-Ng'ombe area of Embakasi was initially four adjacent plots, each measuring 0.4 hectares. Mr Abdorahman is accused of fraudulently merging the plots into two different parcels and forging certificates of title, purporting that they were issued by the Ministry of Lands. He is also accused of forging provisional approval forms dated April 4, 2006, used to effect the amalgamation and registration of the false certificates.
According to the letter, Pansiba purchased the plots on June 20, 2017, from Consolidated Timbers Limited and took possession of the premises until 2021, when Prime Bank went knocking with the intention to auction the plots.
Upon enquiry, Pansiba established that the two parcels had been used as collateral to acquire a bank loan, on which the borrowers defaulted. At that point, they also established that Mr Abdorahman had acquired the four parcels of land and merged them into two parcels.
“This prompted the complainants to report to the DCI for investigations, giving rise to this matter. In support of their position, the complainants furnished the DCI with all their ownership documents, clearly illustrating the chronology of events/movement of the land ownership to date,” Mr Musundi narrates.
He says representatives of Prime Bank also recorded their statements with the DCI and allegedly confirmed that the documents for the two parcels had been deposited in 2008 as collateral by a company known as Midland Investments Limited.
It is reported that the bank carried out due diligence and opined that it was a good title/security.
For its part, Midland Investments (Kisumu), through its director, Jayesh P. Kotecha, stated that it bought the parcels in 2008. It believes it is the legitimate owner of the parcels on the grounds that it also undertook thorough due diligence and was satisfied that the land was genuine.
“Upon conclusion of the investigations by the DCI, they established from the lands office that the documents made available by the complainant were genuine and the documents used to generate title documents for the two amalgamated parcels were not genuine,” the letter reads.
The DCI investigations revealed that the deed plans used to generate the documents belonged to other land parcels in Nairobi and Mombasa.
