Puzzle of 60 prime property records that vanished from City Hall
The headquarters of the Nairobi City County Government located on City Hall Way on October 26, 2022. Land records relating to 60 multimillion-shilling properties in Nairobi, including details of a house in the middle of a forcible eviction probe in Westlands, have vanished from City Hall.
Land records relating to 60 multimillion-shilling properties in Nairobi, including details of a house in the middle of a forcible eviction probe in Westlands, have vanished from City Hall.
This was revealed by County Chief Valuer Isaac Nyoike, who appeared before a committee of the City County Assembly.
The Planning and Housing committee of the Nairobi assembly is investigating the forcible eviction of Niraj Shah and his wife Avan Shah from their Sh80 million property in Westlands, a few weeks ago.
“At the county lands office, we could not locate the records for the property that Mr Shah owned in Parklands. The file for the land rates was not there. The file that disappeared contained land records for 60 properties and Mr Shah’s property was one of them,” Mr Nyoike told the committee.
Committee chairperson Alvin Orlando said preliminary investigations had indicated the records for the land got lost in 2015 under mysterious circumstances.
“We shall be thorough in our investigations and we’ll work with the lands office to cooperate with us, else we’ll send most of them away,” he said.
Mr Nyoike was under pressure to explain the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of the land records.
Minority leader Anthony Karanja wanted Mr Nyoike to explain to the MCAs how the records on the property got lost.
The land officers at the city county were given one week to prepare appropriate documents showing the land rates paid over the years and table them when the hearing resumes next week on Tuesday.
While giving his testimony before the committee, Mr Niraj claimed that a section of the city Members of County Assembly (MCAs) had taken money from him and promised to help him get back his property, but they all disappeared.
Eviction
Mr Niraj and his wife were evicted from their Parklands home a few weeks ago by Zack Baraza of Siuma Auctioneers Ltd, who claimed to be in possession of court orders to evict the family. He was arrested and arraigned, but was later released on Sh200,000 cash bail.
Lariak Properties Ltd claimed to have bought the land back in 2010. The company owners however remain unknown.
According to the Registrar of companies, the firm claiming the ownership of the land is owned by Mr Nathaniel Kipkemboi, Mr Samuel Chepkwony, Mr John Rotich and Mr Joel Kiplang’at. None of them has come out in public to talk about the property.
