How Ruto grabbed 100 acre farm after owner fled for safety from war

Image result for weston hotelSeems Ruto is surrounded by scandals and far from escaping them.

The National Land Commission has established that Deputy President William Ruto’s Weston Hotel is built on public land but will not order it to be demolished.

In a decision causing a storm between the NLC and the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority, the commission wants Ruto compelled to pay for the 0.773ha plot opposite Wilson Airport at the current market rate. Last year it was valued at Sh300 million.

In 2013, the High Court ordered Ruto to surrender a 100-acre farm in the Rift Valley and pay Sh5 million as compensation to the rightful owner, Adrian Muteshi.

Mr Gilbert Adrian Muteshi alleges that Mr Ruto grabbed his 100-acre farm in Eldoret North after he fled the 2008 post-election violence.

The judge was told that Mr William Ruto who was Agriculture minister met two people in his office and hatched a plot to grab the land belonging to a post-election violence victim and paid the two Sh600,000 to execute the plan.Image result for muteshi ruto

Lawyer Anthony Lubulellah (left) and Adrian Muteshi (right) 

The lawyer cross-examined Mr Ruto’s witness, Mr Hosea Ruto, and said he and the politician were childhood friends.

Mr Lubulellah said Mr Ruto met Mr Bethuel Kipsang and Mr Peter Kosgey and agreed on the deal.

“I put it to you that a plot was hatched to deprive the plaintiff of his land at this meeting,” Mr Lubulellah told the witness.Image result for muteshi ruto

He accused the witness of being the “engine” of the alleged fraud. “A scheme was hatched by you and your namesake, Mr William Ruto, to grab the plaintiff’s land in Tapsagoi,” he said.

The witness admitted he was Mr Ruto’s agent in the deal but said his job was to find the landowner and introduce him to Mr Ruto.

He said he established that the owners of the land were a Mr Kiptugen, the husband of Dorothy Yator, a Mr Bethuel Kipsang and Mr Peter Kosgey. He said he did not conduct an official search but was shown six titles in the name of Dorothy Yator.

The men who came to Mr Ruto’s office introduced themselves as agents of the title holder, he said.

Image result for Silas Kiogera Mburugu

A senior Lands ministry official however said documents used to transfer a 100-acre piece of land belonging to an internally displaced person to William Ruto were forged.

Principal Lands administration officer Silas Kiogera Mburugu testified that there were inconsistencies in the transfer of the land from Mr Adrian Gilbert Muteshi to Mr Ruto, as the documents used were not genuine.

Mr Mburugu told Lady Justice Rose Ougo that under normal circumstances, the documents were supposed to be signed by the Ministry’s permanent secretary as the only trustee in charge of settlement schemes.

The Deputy President William Ruto was ordered to pay Sh5 million to the post-election violence victim for illegally occupying his land.

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