Joshua Kulei, who served as former President Daniel Arap Moi’s personal secretary, has been sued for allegedly grabbing a 120-acre land in Kabarak, Nakuru County worth millions.
Cove Investments Ltd has accused Mr Kulei and his son Kennedy Kipruto Kulei of colluding with the original land owner’s family and lands officials to grab the prime property.
Mr Kulei and his son have been accused of using Royal Sian Ltd, a firm they co-own, to grab the Kabarak property worth at least Sh600 million going by current market rates.
Cove Investments is owned by Sarah Jerotich Kipsaita, the mother of prominent lawyer Ken Kiplagat, who also worked for President Moi’s administration in the 1990s.
Ms Kipsaita’s firm has asked the High Court to jail Mr Kulei, his son Kennedy, Johana Kiprotich, Joseph Rono and the Nakuru County land registrar for disobeying past determinations that confirmed Cove Investments as the property’s valid owner.
Records at the lands registry show that Mr Kulei acquired the property from the family of Mathias Kimnyole Langat, the original owner, in October 2017.
Mr Kiprotich and Mr Rono are Mr Langat’s sons and administrators of his estate. Cove Investments had sued Mr Langat’s family in September, 2017 and obtained court orders barring dealings with the property.
Ms Kipsaita says that Mr Kulei and Mr Langat’s family forged court orders showing that the freeze on dealing with the land had been lifted, a move that allegedly enabled them to transfer the property to Royal Sian Ltd.
In a fresh application, Ms Kipsaita wants the High Court jail Mr Kulei, his son Kennedy, Mr Kiprotich, Mr Rono and the Nakuru County land registrar for contempt of court.
She argues that they colluded to register the property to Royal Sian Ltd when there were court orders barring dealings with the land. Ms Kipsaita adds that in Cove Investments’ suit against them, the respondents did not inform the court that the land had been transferred in the course of proceedings.
“The 4th respondent (Royal Sian Ltd) at all times recognised the applicant’s (Cove Investments) rights over the suit property and issued written confimation to Cove Investments of the knowledge of the suit herein,” Ms Kipsaita says in court papers. “…Knowingly committing a fraud upon this honourable court and the petitioner by the 1st respondent (Mr Langat’s sons), 4th respondents (Royal Sian Ltd), 5th respondent (Mr Kulei) and 6th respondent (Kennedy Kipruto) conducting pretended proceedings before this honourable court knowing fully well that they had procured an illegal and fraudulent transfer of the suit property during the pendency of the suit property herein,” Ms Kipsaita adds.
The vicious court battle has offered a rare insight into Mr Kulei’s life before becoming former President Moi’s personal assistant. Ms Kipsaita reveals in court papers that her family helped Mr Kulei in his youth, and later helped raise his son. She says the alleged grab by Mr Kulei came as a shock to her on account of their families being close friends.
The documents show that Ms Kipsaita’s brother Isaiah accommodated Mr Kulei in a Kariokor, Nairobi house. After Mr Kulei got a job at the State House, Ms Kipsaita’s niece lived with Mr Kulei to help raise his son Kennedy.
“It is therefore difficult to comprehend how a person our family has assisted and treated as one of us would now turn out to be the prime mover of the fraud herein aimed at stealing our own family property. The 5th respondent (Mr Kulei) and the 6th respondent (Kennedy Kipruto) have now forgotten their past and the people who helped them along the way but are now consumed by ravenous gluttony beyond all logic,” Ms Kipsaita says in her affidavit.
In 1998, Mr Langat, the original owner of the land, had persuaded Ms Kipsaita’s family to purchase it. Ms Kipsaita owned a farm, operated through Cove Investments, which neighboured Mr Langat’s 120-acre piece. She agreed to buy the land.
Over the years, Mr Langat and his sons – Johana Kiprotich and Joseph Rono – collected Sh15.9 million from Cove Investments in several installments.
The agreement provided that Mr Langat initiates transfer of the property after receiving 50 percent of the agreed price. He had not transferred the property despite receiving over 95 per cent of the price. He was expected to acquire the consent of the Land Control Board, and went to court when he failed to get it.
