Six suspects presented in court on allegations of being part of a land fraud syndicate have been released on bail.
The suspects, Benedict Mwangangi Ngala, Joel Kakuli Mwangangi, Vincent Boaz Owano, Titus Wambua Kithuku, Sylvester Mwanzia Mwanthi and Erick Omondi Ojwang were released on a Sh 500,000 bail.
Chief Magistrate Bernard Ochoi also ordered the six to provide one contact person upon depositing the cash bail.
The magistrate ruled that no compelling reasons were given by the investigating officer to deny the respondents bail.
“It is my finding that compelling reasons were not given to deny the respondents bail. Each respondent shall be admitted to a cash bail of Sh 500,000 with one contact person each,” C.M Ochoi ruled.
The court also ordered the six to the DCI land fraud unit offices two days a week, that is, Monday and Thursday.
In addition, the suspects were prohibited from contacting any witnesses in the matter
The suspects are under investigation for various land fraud related offenses including forgery and making false documents without authority.
The police presented them in court on 5th August 2024 seeking orders to detain them for 30 days to allow them to complete investigations.
The court heard that the two Mwangangis were arrested at Anpemu house, room No. 17 along Ngara Road where they were allegedly found in the process of printing a forged title deed for Mweiga/Block 5/Muthuini parcel No. 543.
Items recovered during arrest
According to an affidavit by investigative officer detective Corporal Nicolaus Osuri Otieno, other items recovered during their arrest include three flash disks, assorted certificates of lease, assorted rubber stamps, 10 stamp pads, assorted letters of allotment and certificate of titles printing papers.
Others include several correspondence letters and idents to and from the Director of survey, Director Land administration and Chief Land Registrar, deed plans with some bearing land reference numbers, plot numbers computation numbers and some blank, 15 printed certificates of title without land record inserted searches for land record among other items.
The court heard that more items were later recovered from Kakuli’s house in Umoja, Nairobi.
Detective Otieno also told the court that during his arrest, Kakuli swallowed a memory card and efforts to retrieve it had been unsuccessful.
“We are therefore seeking ex-parte court orders to be addressed to the Chief Executive Officer, Kenyatta National Hospital for the medical practitioners to assist the victim and the applicant herein in efforts to recover the same for forensic analysis,” the officer added.
The investigator further told the court that some of the recovered letters of allotment have names of persons which are not for and do not belong to the suspects.
According to the investigator, the police need more time for forensic analysis of the documents and searches.
The case will be mentioned on 4th September 2024.
