Gideon Moi
Eyes are on Chief Justice David Maraga as the Court of Appeal is set to hear a case involving retired president Daniel Moi and a widow in Sh1.1 billion grabbed 53-acre land in Uasin Gishu.
Weekly Citizen has information that Baringo senator Gideon Moi was the force behind the Court of Appeal move. For days, Gideon has been in Uasin Gishu to scheme how to counter the ruling by High Court judge Antony Ambwayo that awarded the 90-year-old widow Susan Cheburet Chelugui Sh1.1 billion as compensation.
Gideon has brought on his side a well known land dealer Sammy Kogo. Kogo was named in the Karura land grab during the Moi regime. Only recently, Kogo who boasts his daughters cannot be married to a poor man was in the news after he took former cabinet minister Cyrus Jirongo to court to face criminal charges over controversial land ownership in Upper hill Nairobi.
Jirongo was charged in court but Supreme Court ruled the criminal charges Jirongo was facing were unconstitutional.
Jirongo had moved to Supreme Court as an applicant with Soy Developers Limited and Kogo as respondents, Jirongo had moved to Supreme Court to block appellant court judgment decision which had granted prosecution orders by agencies to institute criminal proceedings against him.
Kogo who owns Kogo Plaza along Langata Road in Nairobi was close to Gideon since they met during the Moi era. His Kikuyu wife was the link between Kogo and Gideon. In fact using the Moi link, Kogo grabbed prime lands in Nairobi, Eldoret and Nakuru.
It is Kogo now Gideon has fallen to in fighting the widow.
In one of the meetings held at Kogo’s Uasin Gishu residence attended by Gideon and a number of strategists, it was agreed a one Nathaniel Langat be brought on board.
Langat was sponsored to move to court and claim the land belongs to him. It is imperative to note that for years, the widow has been battling the powerful Moi family leading to the ruling. Langat, a well known busy body in Eldoret courts corridors was nowhere in the case. How he has decided to be enjoined has left many guessing.
During the secret talks, Kogo is said to have openly boasted how he was going to use his connections to influence the outcome.
He even told the Baringo senator that the issue is to delay the case at Appeal Court as the widow is living on borrowed time. Kogo even swore to stand in for the Moi family to make sure the judgment is nullified.
Those present agreed, with Moi having declared to run for presidency in 2022, it was not good for him to be seen in public fighting the widow but it has to be via proxies with Kogo leading the in frontal onslaught.
Milton Makhandia
The three Court of Appeal judges handling the case are based in Kisumu. The appellant judges are Justice Milton Mahandia, Justice Okoth Odera and Justice Patrick Kiage.
During the talks, Gideon even boasted of how he influenced the transfer of Justice Ombwayo from Eldoret after he made the ruling in favour of the widow that hit news headlines with many Kenyans commending the widow had gotten her justice in twilight years.
In the case, retired president was ordered to pay Sh1 billion as compensation to the family of a deceased, the late Noah Cheburet Chelungui whose widow has battled for years over the ownership of an upmarket parcel of land measuring 53 acres.
Ombwayo ruled that the prime property within Eldoret municipality belongs to the estate of the late Chelungui.
Justice Kiage
The court directed the widow and her son David K Chelungui (joint administrators of the estate of the late Chelungui) to be compensated Sh1,060,000,000 by Moi and Rai Plywood (K) Limited for the land.
The judge declined to order that the land revert back to the estate of the deceased, saying investors have heavily developed it.
The judge allowed the widow’s plea by declaring that she is entitled to legal protection since the acquisition of her property by Moi and Rai Plywood was “unconstitutional, irregular, unprocedural, tainted, a nullity ab initio (from the beginning) and therefore not worthy of any constitutional protection”.
He found that the widow was illegally dispossessed of the land and that she is therefore entitled to a redress. The property was first registered in Moi’s name in September 21 1983.
The widow, through lawyer William Arusei, told the judge that her late husband, Chelungui, and five others bought the land measuring 3,300 acres from a colonial settler, Jacobus Hendrik EngelBrecht, in 1965. Each of the six got 620 acres after sub-division.
The land was later allocated to the former head of state then registered in his name.
Moi was apportioned 53 acres, a former assistant minister Stanley Kiptoo arap Metto (12 acres) and a small portion dished out to the deceased.
“There is no iota of evidence as to how the former president of the Republic of Kenya Daniel Toroitich arap Moi was registered as the proprietor of the suit land, which was part of and parcel of L R No.104921/1 that belonged to Noah Kimngeny Chelungui.
“The state counsel stated that these were orders from above by the first defendant who was the president (Moi),” said Justice Ombwayo in his 58-page judgment.
