Did Ex-governor Kabogo arm-twisted businessman Runda contested land?

Businessman Kimani Kabogo has accused former Kiambu governor William Kabogo of grabbing his land in Runda and putting up a real estate project that could have raked in over Sh2.5 billion.

Mr Kimani claims that Iguta Paradise Homes, a plush estate completed in 2018, is built on land that Mr Kabogo allegedly conned him out of.

Iguta Paradise consists of 60 housing units, each four-bedroomed with several luxurious features and finishing’s.

Mr Kimani says in court papers that each unit was to be sold for Sh30 million. But the Nation has established that Mr Kabogo sold each house for Sh42 million, meaning a full uptake would make the former governor Sh2.5 billion.

The claims are at the centre of a legal battle that has been running since 2017 and is now at the Court of Appeal ,which is set to determine whether Mr Kimani will get a slice of the real estate project.

Mr Kimani claims that Mr Kabogo took possession of the property and evicted him and his siblings in 2016, leaving them homeless and destitute. The businessman sued for Sh387 million. The High Court ruled in Mr Kabogo’s favour in 2018, holding that there is no formal contract signed between the parties.

Justice Lucy Gacheru held that in the absence of a formal contract and evidence that Mr Kabogo was to hold the land in trust for Mr Kimani, the court had no powers to proceed with hearing the dispute.

Mr Kimani challenged the judgment at the Court of Appeal, which is now expected to make a determination on whether to uphold Justice Gacheru’s decision or to order that the case be heard.

What is not disputed is that Mr Kimani owned the properties in the 1990s and he used them as collateral for loans worth Sh15 million from NIC Bank (now NCBA) and ICDC. The loans were issued to Mr Kimani’s Kenya Modern Digitals company.

In September 2000, NCBA threatened to auction the t properties to recover its Sh10 million and interest of 20 per cent. Mr Kimani says he approached Mr Kabogo to help offset the loans and save the land.

He adds that Mr Kabogo was to hold onto the title deeds in trust for Mr Kimani as the two decided on whether to speculate then sell when land prices shot up, or go into a joint real estate project. Mr Kimani insists that either way, profits were to be split equally. He says in 2003 Mr Kabogo helped offset the ICDC loan under the same terms as the NIC Bank one.

But in 2006, Mr Kimani claims, Mr Kabogo became elusive whenever he tried to check the status of the land or to have the agreement put in writing. He  holds that he later discovered that Mr Kabogo was putting up 60 houses on the land and sued him in December, 2017 at the High Court in Thika seeking Sh387 million as compensation.

Mr Kabogo, in his response, denies that there was no such agreement, and that he bought the three pieces of land from NIC Bank and ICDC after Mr Kimani was unable to repay the Sh15 million loans. He argues that NIC Bank and ICDC sold the land to his firm, Arcoverde Kenya Limited, by private treaty (when a lender opts to negotiate the price with a specific property buyer instead of a public auction).

Mr Kabogo adds that Mr Kimani signed consents to transfer of the pieces of land to Arcoverde and therefore has no basis to claim compensation.

Credit:https://nation.africa/kenya/news/kabogo-accused-of-grabbing-runda-land-4089778