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| PCEA Kahawa Sukari church |
Kahawa Sukari Limited a land buying company based at Vedic House along Nairobi’s Mama Ngina Street is at the center of a vicious land ownership raw that has roped in a powerful family in Kenya and a church. The family is embroiled in a bitter tussle with an evangelical church over ownership of a piece of land in Kahawa Sukari.
The land in question has equally engrossed land owners affiliated to Kahawa Sukari Residents Welfare Association as well as the land company. The land buying company which is alleged to have sold part of the vast land to a Church, has over the years been in the media over fraudulent land transactions that would only rival those of the disgraced Embakasi Ranching Company. Kahawa Sukari Limited is currently owned by Stephen Mbugua and Edward Kanjabi after they successfully edged out fellow co-founders, Paul Muigai and Bethwel Muiruri (Wa Laban) both of whom died under mysterious circumstances a while back.
The battle now threatens to cripple the family’s flagship real estate development project that market analysts and observers have termed as the largest in the entire developing world. The dispute arises in regard to the family’s plan to put up a 600-billion mini-city on 11,000 acres within the vast Sukari Ranch which currently is home to a dairy firm and the a high end School.
The 30,000 acres Sukari Ranch borders Kahawa Sukari Estate, extending from Thika Superhighway on one side and Eastern Bypass on the other side and extending southwards to Kangundo Road. Until early 1974 Sukari Ranch was owned by Scophin Company Ltd, a French firm. However, the French owners were forcefully pushed to abandon the land and flee back to Europe courtesy of alleged threats by the then powerful Land minister Jackson Harvester Angaine. How land that was originally earmarked for the future expansion of the City of Nairobi ended in the hands of private hands is a matter that can only be resolved once the Ndung’u Land report on illegal & irregular allocation and acquisition of land is implemented.
On the Superhighway side, there is a River that cuts across Kahawa Barracks, Kenyatta University and Sukari Ranch and Kahawa Sukari Estate. That river is now the source of the protracted dispute between the said family and PCEA Church, Kahawa Sukari. The influential religious institution also runs PCEA Kahawa Sukari Academy. The Church accuses the family of grabbing her land by diverting the cause of the river thus cutting away huge section of their land. For years, the river served as the boundary between Kenyatta’s Sukari Ranch and Kahawa Sukari Estate.
The church accuses the family and the land buying company of trying to use their influence in government circles of interfering with the original ownership documents and the map. The Right Rev. Julius Mwamba-led PCEA leadership says it is in possession of the original “deed plan” and no amount of threats and intimidation will force the Church to back down. The original deep plan, the church says, was handed over to them by the previous management of Kahawa Sukari Limited and was authenticated by the church’s advocates as to be true. The family on the other hand accuses Kahawa Sukari Limited of fraud and forgery of land documents. And as such the family has advised the Church to instead sue Kahawa Sukari Limited for having conned them.
Stephen Mbugua (Kahawa Sukari Limited) was until 2012 the Chairman of Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KNCCI) and was forcefully ejected from office by a group allied to Kiprono Kittony. During his tenure, Mbugua run down KNCCI and in collusion with other directors sold away much of the Chamber’s assets.
By diverting the cause of the river, PCEA church says 4.5 acres of her land was hived off. So protracted is the standoff that the construction of sewer lines to the new City has temporary stopped. The church has refused to bulge to threats by the family.
The Sukari Church now accuses the family of exerting undue pressure on the PCEA national leadership to coerce Kahawa Sukari branch to give in. Also roped into the saga is Kahawa Sukari Residents Association & VersityVille Estate Residents Association (located on Eastern Bypass). The two associations are also accusing the family of putting up three man-made dams inside the ranch that, they allege, could burst any time causing a human catastrophe akin to the Patel Dam tragedy in Nakuru County.
PCEA Church Kahawa Sukari as well as Kahawa Sukari Residents Association & VersityVille Estate Residents Association wants construction of the City halted until an independent probe is carried about the three dams. Over and above the demands, the church on her part says they will not surrender the said land under whatever circumstances since they need the land in order expand the academic institution as well as her other religious facilities.
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