Juja MP George Koimburi, lawyer Gathii Irungu, and Shelmith Karungari are battling fraud charges in court over a contested land sale in 2018, whose dispute revolves around the true identity of the property seller.
The prosecution alleges that the transfer of the land was fraudulent, while the accused deny wrongdoing, with Mr Irungu blaming his former employee for the legal challenges.
The dispute revolves around a 2018 sale agreement where MP Koimburi and Ms Karungari claim they bought the land for Sh5.5 million from Mr Julius Gitonga Githinji, but the alleged seller denied involvement in the transaction. Forensic analysis found Mr Githinji’s signatures on the documents were forged.
The controversy surrounding the transaction surfaced on June 19, 2020 when the Land Fraud Unit at the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) kicked off investigations into an alleged fraudulent transfer of a parcel of land situated in Juja.
The investigation followed a complaint lodged by Lucia Wanjiku Githinji, who was the administrator of the estate of her late husband Gibson Githinji Gitonga, the initial owner of the land.
Ms Wanjiku claimed that the suit property, registered as L.R. Ruiru/Juja East Block 36, had been transferred to Mr George Koimburi Ndung'u (now Juja MP) and Shelmith Karungari instead of her son Julius Gitonga Githinji.
The investigations led to the prosecution of Mr Koimburi, Ms Karungari and lawyer Irungu, who are facing criminal charges related to land fraud at a chief magistrate court in Milimani Nairobi though they have since denied the accusations. They are out on a cash bail of Sh100,000 each.
Mr Koimburi and Ms Karungari are facing four counts of conspiracy to defraud, forgery, obtaining registration of land by false pretence and uttering false documents. Mr Irungu is facing one charge of conspiracy to defraud.
Court documents show that they allegedly committed the offences on March 26, 2020 jointly with others not before the court.
The documents further show that the land measures 3.2 acres, is valued at Sh10 million and is owned by Julius Gitonga.
Recently, the High Court dismissed a petition by lawyer Irungu to quash the criminal trial. Maintaining his innocence, Mr Irungu argued that he was not involved in the transaction though the police believe otherwise.
Liable for the alleged fraud
The sale agreement was processed by an employee of Mr Irungu’s law firm in Ruiru, Kiambu County, and who later vanished leaving his employer under probe by DCI. Mr Irungu previously served as a member of the Advocates Disciplinary Tribunal.
The court papers show that the land was sold through a sale agreement dated November 17, 2018 and which was executed at the office of Mr Irungu's law firm, Gathii Irungu & Co. Advocates, in Ruiru town.
Details of the case emerged from a petition filed at the High Court by Mr Irungu challenging his prosecution on grounds that he could not be held liable for the alleged fraud.
However, Judge Lawrence Mugambi dismissed the petition saying that it was the responsibility of the trial court to evaluate the evidence and make a determination.
"It is apparent that the investigator was unconvinced on the sincerity of the Petitioner (Mr Irungu) whom he considered evasive due to his unwillingness to provide full details of the staff he alleged had drafted the agreement and also because already, the second and third interested parties (Koimburi and Karungari) had implicated the petitioner as the person whom they had dealt with," said Justice Mugambi.
Mr Irungu contends the agreement was processed by a rogue employee, Harrison Ndung’u, who disappeared in 2020, and who neither had his authority nor permission to do the transaction.
He argued that there was no file or a record of the legal fees’ receipts evidencing payment for the services rendered in respect of the said transaction.
The said employee had absconded duty since 2020 though Mr Irungu had furnished police with his details including mobile phone number and home location.
The lawyer asserted that he did not take or issue instructions, draft, attest or execute the said agreement of sale. In addition, he stated that he was never present at any of these transactions.
He protested that decision of the State to initiate criminal case against him lacked any lawful basis as there was no evidence adduced to implicate him in any way with reference to the alleged offences.
Fraudulent sale of property
But according to Police Constable Victor Wangila Mutali, one of the case investigators, the detectives were convinced that there was a conspiracy between Mr Irungu, Mr Koimburi and Ms Karungari concerning the alleged fraudulent sale of the property.
On this premise, the DCI officer forwarded the investigation file to the Director of Public Prosecutions who then made the decision to charge them.
Investigations started with writing a letter to the District Land Registrar Ruiru requesting for copies of the suit property’s green card, history of ownership, documents launching the transfer and daily presentation book.
They received these copies. From this, they established that the suit property had been transferred from the late Gibson Githinji Gitonga to Julius Gitonga Githinji then subsequently to Mr Koimburi and Ms Karungari.
The investigator said Mr Koimburi and Ms Karungari claimed that they had bought the suit property from the owner, who was Mr Julius Githinji Gitonga.
They said this sale was made in line with the agreement of sale, which was made and attested by lawyer Irungu as they paid the seller Sh2.5 million in November 2018.
The two parties further informed that at all times during the transaction they had dealt with the lawyer. In sum, the two alleged that they had purchased the suit property for Sh5.5 million although they failed to prove this.
On the other hand, he stated that Mr Julius Gitonga claimed that he never sold the property to Mr Koimburi and Ms Karungari.
The investigator disclosed that he forwarded the sale agreement and the two acknowledgement letters to the document examiner for forensic examination of the signatures.
According to the examiner’s report, none of the two documents was found to have been signed by Mr Julius Gitonga or his mother.
Conspiracy between accused persons
Thereafter, they contacted the lawyer to ascertain his involvement in drafting the said agreement and acknowledgements.
The court heard that lawyer informed the investigators that these had been done by one of his advocates in his law firm but he did not however disclose the particulars of the said advocate.
The investigation team recorded the complainant’s statement and they as well obtained copies of her documents as proof of ownership of the subject property.
At the end of the investigation, the investigators were convinced that there was reasonable cause to believe that there was a conspiracy between the three accused persons (Mr Koimburi, Mr Irungu and Ms Karungari).
