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A Thika court has summoned the Lands Registrar to appear before it today to shed light on the status of a 6.613-acre land that Lesedi Developers Limited CEO Geoffrey Kiragu intends to resettle investors who have sued him for defrauding them Sh5.47 million.

The Thika Municipality Block 40/2414 has been at the centre of contention between Kiragu and the original owner Martha Njeri Ndung’u.

Title deed

While the records from the Survey of Kenya indicate that the excision on the land was concluded on October 31, 2023 and that subdivision has been completed, a search at Thika Land registry indicates that the parcel is still under Njeri’a name.

To clear the air on why the title deed has not yet been subdivided as per the records from Survey of Kenya, Thika Chief Magistrate Stella Atambo (pictured) summoned land registrar sitting in Thika to appear before her court today.

“To facilitate meaningful progress, the land registrar Thika be and is hereby summoned to appear before this court on March 11, 2024 at 2:30 pm to explain the discrepancy or difference in the mother title number Thika Municipality Block 40/2414 because records with the survey of Kenya map show the relevant parcel was excised and subdivided while the Thika lands registry does not reflect this,” ordered Atambo.

The registrar will further be expected to explain the steps he intends to undertake to rectify the anomaly to facilitate settlement of the complainants.

The court at the same time summoned Martha Njeri Ndung’u, the original owner of the land to explain why the subject parcel is still under her name despite the Environment Land Court having ordered that she facilitates transfer of the parcel to Kiragu and, or his company – Lesedi Developers Limited. “Summons to issue to the registered owner of the subject parcel one Martha Njeri Ndung’u to appear before this court on March 11, 2024 at 2:30 PM to come and explain to this court why the subject parcel is still in her name despite the Environment Land Court consent dated September 14, 2022 wherein she was to facilitate transfer to the accused persons, company or names herein to give way to the complainants being allocated parcels which they had made payments,” ruled Atambo.

Atambo had earlier urged the parties to consider settling the matter amicably through resettlement and urged Kiragu to consider refunding the land buyers their money.

But going by submissions from both the prosecution and the defense counsels, Atambo decried that there was very little and minimal progress on the resettlement bid.