Police boss dragged into land dispute case
Nairobi regional police commander Rashid Yakub has been accused of taking sides in a Sh150 million land dispute off Mombasa Road, associated with the brother of a Cabinet Secretary.
Yakub is accused of deploying police officers to guard the private property allegedly at the behest of Sports Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed’s brother, Ahmed Jibril, who is accused of land fraud.
The claims come days after Jibril and China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) were kicked out of the property following a court order issued by Senior Resident Magistrate D.M. Kivuti.
On November 2, police in Embakasi allowed Francis Njeru, together with auctioneers, to take possession of the disputed land pending determination of the criminal case.
A letter signed by police officer James Njoroge on behalf of the Embakasi OCPD and addressed to the Milimani court registrar confirmed the order to be genuine.
The OCPD sent an Inspector of Police and two constables to supervise the takeover.
On November 10, the office of the Nairobi regional police commander wrote to the Embakasi police boss, asking him to provide an Inspector of Police and nine constables to provide security as Siuma Auctioneers evicted ARJ Capital (Jibril’s company).
The letter was signed by police officer Samuel Boit on behalf of Yakub.
“This is to confirm that Francis Nyaga Njeru has today the November 13, at 3.45pm taken vacant possession of premises on LR Number 2027 after successful execution of civil suit 1346/2020,” read the letter signed by Zacharia Baraza of Siuma Auctioneers and addressed to Nyaga.
But in a twist of events, Yakub wrote to the OCPD on November 17, asking him to avail police officers to guard ARJ Capital property on the same land it had been evicted from.
Fictitious documents
Yesterday, Yakub disassociated himself from the wrangles over the plot, insisting that police are still investigating the matter to determine the bona fide owner of the land.
“This dispute began long before I was posted to Nairobi. These people are only trying to associate me with the dispute because I happen to be of Somali origin like Jibril.
Let them wait for full investigations to determine the land’s true ownership,” Yakub told People Daily.
He denied claims that he had vested interests in the land.
But Njeru accused Yakub of abusing his powers to eject him from the land.
“Curiously, the purported letter ARJ Capital used has no LR number and title documents attached.
The commander overlooked all these while instructing police officers to go guard the private property instead of serving the public,” Njeru said.
Njeru had sued Jibril for allegedly using fictitious documents to gain possession of the land and leasing the same to China Road and Bridge Corporation which the latter uses as its warehouse.
The High Court ordered investigations into the alleged fraud. Jibril and his wife have been charged with conspiracy to defraud, making a false title document and obtaining the land’s registration documents by pretences.
Initially Jibril had told the court that he bought the property from Joshua Kiptoo Toroitich through his firm ARJ Capital Limited and the transfer was finalised in 2015.
But in August, he claimed he had purchased the land from Haji Buko contrary to court documents.
Last week, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Noordin Haji suffered a blow, after a court rejected his bid to withdraw criminal charges against Jibril in the Sh150 million land fraud case.
High Court Judge Ogembo Ogola dismissed the DPP’s application, saying Jibril and his wife Farah Mohamed faced serious criminal charges.
He noted that while the DPP had legal mandate to withdraw criminal cases, he must obtain the permission from the court with justifiable reasons.
He ruled that the DPP is constitutionally bound to exercise his powers in the interest of the public.
