Michuki firm, Nairobi County clash over ownership of prime land parcels

A firm owned by the family of the late former powerful Cabinet Minister John Michuki has accused the Nairobi County Government of orchestrating the forceful and illegal takeover of two of its prime parcels of land in Nairobi.   

The prime land is situated next to Windsor Golf and Country Club along Eastern Bypass, which is owned by the family of Michuki, who served in various influential positions in former President Mwai Kibaki’s government, including transport and internal security.  

Through lawyer Ngatia Wambugu, the family has written to Inspector General of Police Douglas Kanja to protest the land’s alleged takeover and dispossession of L.R NO. Nairobi Block 219/32 and L.R NO. Nairobi Block 219/33 from Fairview Investments Ltd, which is the registered proprietor, by the county government.  

The Michuki heirs’ owned firm says it has owned the land since 2011, and there is no documentary evidence that the land on which it has grown coffee was surrendered for public use.  

It says that upon taking over ownership of the two parcels of land, their reference numbers were converted to L.R No. 17665/46 contained in Grant No. 136805 to L.R. No. 17665/47 contained in Grant No. 136806 pursuant to the Land (Registration Units) Order, 2017, enacted under the Land Registration Act 2012.  

The order converted land reference numbers in Nairobi to new parcel numbers and requires that all transactions and dealings relating to such parcels be carried out in new registers.  

In the letter to IGP Kanja, Fairview Investments states that on October 3, last year, it sought to fence off the land, but the exercise was disrupted by a group of men armed with machetes who, it says, disputed its boundaries.

“The group proceeded to uproot approximately 20 posts that they claimed had been set along the boundaries of the property and reloaded them on the claimant’s vehicle whilst demanding that the claimant leaves the property,” the letter says. 

“The complainant reported the matter to Marurui Police Station under Occurrence Book Number 14 and furnished the police officers with copies of the respective titles to the property as well as affidavits by its officers confirming its ownership of the property.”

It adds that on March 21 this year, Fairview Investments came to learn that the Nairobi County Government had purportedly claimed ownership of the property, and it intended to send its officers to take over its ownership.

Police officers

The company reported the same to the police station under Occurrence Book Number 09/21/03/20225.  

On March 26, individuals claiming to be acting on the authority of the county government attempted to access the property to place a container emblazoned with the insignia of the Nairobi City County. 

According to Fairview Investments, the individuals, who were accompanied by police officers and vehicles bearing official registration number plates, claimed that the land had been surrendered to the defunct Nairobi City Council, the county government’s predecessor. They presented a letter dated December 20, 2024, signed by Nairobi County Governor Johnson Sakaja as well as the acting County Secretary Godfrey Akumali, which was addressed to then-Nairobi Regional Police Commander Adamson Bungei, requesting assistance to secure the property, which they claimed belonged to the county government. 

The letters, however, also acknowledged that the local police boss had previously provided Fairview Investments with security as it erected a chain-link fence along the land’s boundaries.  

Fairview Investments insists that it has never surrendered the land and remains the registered owner with valid title deeds.  Despite this, it accuses the county government of cutting and carrying away its coffee trees and proceeding to fence it off with timber and iron sheets, despite an order by the Environment and Land Court on April 28 that the status quo be maintained in the presence of the county’s lawyer.  

The firm, in its letter to the IG, notes that on May 26, the Chief Officer-Lands Cecilia Koigu admitted in court that Sakaja authored the December 20, 2024, letter addressed to Bungei seeking security to secure the property, which they claimed belonged to Nairobi City County and that in March, its officers accessed it, placed a container and erected a fence.  

Authentication exercise

In addition, it says that following a request by Roysambu Member of County Assembly Sospeter Mumbi regarding its ownership, the Nairobi County Assembly Sectoral Committee on Land, Planning and Housing confirmed it as the legal owner following a survey and authentication exercise carried out on January 21, 2011 and that it has been paying land rate payer as per the rates payments.  

The committee also informed the County Assembly that the two parcels of land are sub-plots from the subdivision of Mika estate, which was approved by the Town Planning Committee on December 6, 1990, which required that part of the land be set aside for commercial development as well as nursery and primary schools.  

It added that Nairobi Block 219/32 was for a clinic, while Nairobi Block 219/33 was for commercial use.

Despite acknowledging to the committee that Fairview Investments was the rightful owner, the firm protests that Sakaja, Akumali and Koigu proceeded to seek police protection to take over the land, despite also being aware that security officers had previously assisted them to fence it.  

They aver that the trio and the Nairobi Police Commander’s actions were a violation of their constitutional right to property, in addition to allegedly committing other criminal offences, including trespass, theft of its coffee, robbery with violence, forcible entry, forcible detainment and abuse of office as well as aiding and abetting the commission of a felony or misdemeanuor for which they should personally be held liable.

“Considering the totality of the foregoing, we hereby invite your good office to investigate the complaints herein and forward the findings to the Director of Public Prosecutions, who shall decide – in accordance with the law – whether to charge the offenders with the aforesaid or any other criminal conduct,” Wambugu says in the letter to Kanja.