The first attempt to grab the land in which DP William Ruto’s Weston Hotel started in 1999.
According to Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA) a scheme to grab the now controversial land was hatched as early as June 1999 after cartels realized that the Authority didn’t have relevant ownership papers from the Ministry of lands.
On June 29, 1999, then Commissioner of Lands Sammy Mwaita wrote to the Directorate of Civil Aviation indicating he had received an application from a church group that wanted to build a church on the site.
Even though the first attempt was thwarted, the cartels couldn’t relent and came knocking until they grabbed the land, albeit illegally.
According to documents, the transfer of this land from public to private utility took effect on August 30, 2002 when it was allocated to Priority Limited just months to that year’s general election.
In January 2003, the then PS for transport and communication, Sammy Kyungu, wrote to the then Lands PS Francis Baya noting that public land had been fenced off by a private developer.
The letter to Baya, Kyungu said: “ I want to further reiterate the earlier position of this Ministry, that the said plot is not available and is among the very important inventory of assets which the Government is expected to transfer to the KCAA and should not be allocated to any other party,”.
According to the letter, the PS wanted the government plot safeguarded since it had attracted a lot of interest among private developers.
But according to KCAA’s submissions before the NLC on Wednesday October 31,2018, the ownership of the plot was transferred to a private entity against the advice of senior government officials.
“KCAA management board has never agreed to surrender this title to a private entity at any one given time,” Cyril Wayong’o- Lawyer representing KCAA told NLC.
On 13th of June 2007, Priority Limited transferred the land to Weston Hotels Limited and Monene Investment, ignoring advice from the PSs.
National Land Commissions will make a decision on the case in February next year after completing investigations.