Director of Criminal Investigations George Kinoti has told the High Court to dismiss the case filed by businessman Jimmy Wanjigi and his wife Irene Nzisa seeking to stop their Prosecution.
Through Chief Inspector Patrick Kayemba, the DCI boss they haven’t violated the rights of the Wanjigis adding that the allegations as set out in the petition are not backed by any iota of evidence.
According to the DCI, the case is frivolous, vexatious and an abuse of the court process and should be struck out with cost.
Kinoti argues that he has a constitutional mandate to protect rights to own property and the decision of charging Wanjigi and his wife is protecting the rightful owners of L. R No. 1870/11/200 IR No. 65800 who are Kenyans requiring the protection of the law.
“These constitutional rights are not exclusive to Wanjigi and his wife to an extent that they want to enjoy them at the expense of other Kenyans,” states the DCI.
Wanjigi and his wife were arrested on 18th January over allegations of land fraud but were not charged after their lawyers obtained an order from the High Court prohibiting their arrest and prosecution.
The court heard that on 19th March 2019, Kenroid Limited launched a complaint with the DCI through their lawyer Madhav Bhalla of M/s Taibjee & Bhalla advocates in the name of Horizon Hills Limited.
Kenroid was to purchase the controversial piece of land from Wanjigi’s Horizon Hills Limited.
“In the course of the transaction, Kenroid noticed that there were two companies trading under the name Horizon Hills ltd but with different directors.
Kenroid notified the petitioners (Wanjigi and his wife) about the existence of the two companies having a similar name and the petitioner opted to change the name of the company from Horizon Hills ltd to Aureum ltd.
“Pursuant to the said transaction, Kenroid paid Sh 56 million to Wanjigi and his wife but during the course of the transaction, the authenticity of the title and ownership of the property came into question prompting the buyer to request the DCI, through a letter dated 19th March 2019, to investigate the matter.
The officer dismissed claims by Wanjigi that he has never been a director of Horizon but a beneficial shareholder.
“Jimmy Wanjigi knowingly and with intent to deceive wrote a letter dated 22nd March 2019 as a beneficial shareholder of Horizon Hills ltd purporting to appoint one Kairo Thuo as a” legal nominee and trustee” to transact on his behalf in the acquisition of Horizon Hills ltd the registered owner of land LR 1870/11/200 IR 65800 by TYL ltd, a fact that was vehemently refuted by the said Kairo Thuo in his affidavit sworn 21st January 2022 and filed in petition number E028 of 2022 before this court”, said CI Kayemba.
In addition, the Investigator dismissed Wanjigi’s claim that he filed a civil suit No. 100 of 2019 before Environment and Land court in Nairobi adding that it was false and deliberate attempt to mislead the court as Wanjigi did not have the legal capacity to file the said suit as falsely stated since the said suit was filed by Kenroid ltd against Aureum ltd and eight others.
The court further heard that investigations established that Wanjigi and his wife jointly with others had committed an offence of conspiracy to commit felony, forgery of a deed plans, forgery of grant, procuring execution of a company by false pretense, uttering false document with intent to defraud and obtaining money by false pretense.
The investigation file was forwarded to the Director of Public Prosecution Noordin Haji on 10th December 2021 and on 5th January 2022 the DPP approved the charges in their entirety and that is when the officers proceeded to Wanjigi’s office premises to arrest him for purposes of giving him his opportunity as prescribed by the law to record a charge and cautionary statement to either exonerate themselves or confirm the charges.
