Two prominent politicians, two former Judiciary officers, a retired military officer, and a reclusive tycoon headlined the list of individuals behind assets worth Sh5.1 billion, which the anti-graft watchdog handed over to government agencies through President William Ruto this week.
Grabbed public land accounted for Sh4.63 billion, more than 90 per cent of the assets seized by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) and handed over to the government.
Former Baringo Senator and Kanu party leader Gideon Moi and former Cabinet minister Nicholas Biwott, as directors of Lima Ltd, were behind the irregular transfer of three pieces of land measuring 3.25 acres in Eldoret, valued at Sh1.2 billion.
The former President and Mr Biwott co-owned the company initially incorporated to import farm machinery. In the case of the Lima Ltd land grab, the property was initially owned by the National Police Service. It was transferred to Lima Ltd between 1995 and 1998.
The Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission, a predecessor of the EACC, sued the company in 2004.
The High Court in 2019 ruled in the EACC’s favour, and the anti-graft agency started the recovery process, which was only concluded in May 2024.
Two former Judiciary officials, who also had unsuccessful stints in the political arena, were also behind irregular land transfers from public institutions.
Former magistrate Charles Oyoo Kanyangi was behind the most valuable asset handed over to the State on Wednesday.
Court proceedings revealed that Mr Kanyangi grabbed a 1.88-acre land from his employer, the Judiciary. The land in Milimani, Kisumu, was intended for the expansion of the city’s court.
While serving as head of the Kisumu Law Courts in 1994, Mr Kanyangi acquired the land after colluding with then Commissioner of Lands Wilson Gachanja, who has been sued over 100 times for similar dubious transfers.
He wrote a letter stating that the Judiciary was not opposed to the excision of the land and allocation to him. After it was allocated to him, Mr Kanyangi sold the land to two brothers, Aashish Vallabhdas Jethwa and Lalji Karsan Ramji Rabadia.
The agency filed recovery suits in 2008, which were concluded in 2019. The EACC initiated the recovery process, which reverted the title to the Judiciary’s name.
Mr Kanyangi failed in his bid to become Ndhiwa MP in the 2012 by-election following the death of Orwa Ojode. Aghostino Neto beat him and more than 20 others in the ODM nomination race, and eventually captured the seat.
Another grabbed a piece of land in Eldoret measuring one acre was recovered from lawyer and long-serving Red Cross board member Paul Kiptenai Kimisoy arap Birech.
He served as a Commissioner of Assize – officers hired by the Judiciary to determine court cases and clear backlog –in the latter days of the Moi administration.
The land was irregularly allocated to Chemey Investments, where Mr Birech was a principal shareholder. Today, the property is worth over Sh800 million.
Initially set aside for the Uasin Gishu County Referral Hospital, the land was in 1995 transferred to Kuinet Hardware.
Three days after the allocation, Kuinet Hardware sold it to Ekima Junior Academy. In August 1998 Ekima Junior Academy sold the land to Chemey Investments.
The Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission sued Chemey Investments in 2005 and won at the High Court six years later.
Mr Kipkoti and an individual identified as Philip Kandie were tied to the land heist as directors of Rockville Limited, with the Kenya School of Law as the victim. The land was transferred to Rockville Ltd in 1997.
Chemey Investments appealed, but lost in 2018 as judges Milton Asike-Makhandia, Gatembu Kairu and Kathumira M’inoti delivered a scathing review of the Moi era.
“There was a time in the history of this country, not too long ago, when public officers appeared to have been bitten by a bug that infested them with a malignant and shameless craving to acquire for themselves, their friends or relatives, public property in respect of which they were trustees or custodians. This appeal is a throwback to those days,” the judges said in their determination.
Mr Birech died on July 15, 2020, barely two years after the Court of Appeal dismissed his firm’s case seeking to fight off the EACC’s recovery efforts.
Birech contested the Uasin Gishu senate seat in the 2013 elections, but lost to a dark horse in Isaac Melly, who also beat former State House Comptroller Abraham Kiptanui.
Court records showed that former Judge and Kenya School of Law principal Leonard Njagi aided the land grab. Justice Njagi died in 2021, just a year after the land battle was settled in the EACC’s favour.
Interestingly, after acquiring the land, Rockville Limited transferred the prime property to Standard Assurance, another firm where Mr Kipkoti was a shareholder. Standard Assurance then took a loan and used the grabbed land as security.
The anti-graft agency sued Rockville, Standard Assurance, Mr Kipkoti and Mr Gachanja in 2008, with the case being concluded in 2020, paving the way for the EACC to start the recovery process.
In Kitale, Kapsoen Estates Ltd benefitted from an irregular allocation of land belonging to the Kenya National Library Service.
Retired Major General Augustine Cheruiyot and Flora Tarkwen Cheruiyot are registered as the firm’s owners.
The Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission initially sued Kapsoen in 2007. The EACC filed a fresh suit in 2015, which was concluded in 2020. The EACC started the recovery process after Justice Mwangi Njoroge’s determination.
Mr Cheruiyot has been mentioned in a separate EACC investigation into another piece of land in Nairobi’s Mukuru kwa Reuben. In that probe, Mr Cheruiyot acquired a piece of land that was already hosting a school, before selling it to former Lugari MP Cyrus Jirongo.
After handing land worth Sh4.63 billion and seized unexplained cash totaling Sh511.3 million to the government, EACC CEO Twalib Mbarak said that the agency intends to focus on seizure of corruptly obtained assets and unexplained wealth in line with its strategic plan 2023-2028.
“Asset Tracing and Recovery of corruptly acquired assets and unexplained wealth extinguishes the benefit obtained from corrupt conduct. This strategy helps to create the necessary deterrence as envisioned in the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) for which Kenya is a state party,” Mr Mbarak said.
The EACC handed over a title deed for a piece of land in Nakuru County valued at Sh100 million, 15 titles for land measuring 3.14 acres and valued at Sh135 million in Kisii County and 13 titles for land measuring 8.06 acres valued at Sh300 million in Bungoma County.
