The expensive bar brawl: How Nyeri man lost valued land

A distraught George Wachira Kirira outside the ramshackle that he calls home. [Mose Sammy/ Standard]

Before 1982, George Wachira led a fairly enviable life. Mr Wachira, then 35, was married to Nancy Wanjira and they had nine children whom they raised on his six-acre piece of land on which he grew coffee in Kabiruini Village near the Sagana State Lodge in Nyeri County.

Once in a while, he and his friend Joe Ruthuthi, a teacher at the village primary school, would step out for a tipple at Kiamariga Bar where they whiled away the hours.

However, life turned upside down when Wachira and Mr Ruthuthi engaged in a brawl in the bar on March 13, 1982.

Wachira was arrested and charged with assault and battery.

In the case heard before the Nyeri Resident Magistrate, Ruthuthi said Wachira hit him with a stone on his right leg which was fractured.

He was sentenced to 20 months in prison and three strokes of the cane. But his friend was not done yet.

Eager for his pound of flesh, Ruthuthi went back to court with a civil suit seeking to recover the costs incurred on the medical expenses as a result of the injuries, the five months’ salary he forfeited while recuperating in hospital and general damages.

In his defence, Wachira stated that he was framed for the crime so that some unidentified people could acquire his land.

Ruthuthi won the case and on January 26, 1985, the court ordered his friend to pay Sh102,825 as damages.

For 12 years, Wachira was unable to raise the money which ballooned to Sh240, 439.

Ruthuthi went back to court seeking the sale of his friend’s six acre piece of land to get the money awarded as damages.

In his application filed on February 19, 1997 he asked the court to order the sale of the land and the proceeds handed out to him.

Further, he sought orders to be included among those bidding for the land.

On July 25, 1997, Senior Deputy Registrar of the High Court Muga Apondi gave the go ahead for the sale of the land and appointed auctioneers to handle the process.

On August 18, 1998, an advertisement appeared in the Daily Nation inviting bids for the land located along Sagana State Lodge-Karatina Highway.

Among those present when the land went under the hammer on September 3, 1998 was Ruthuthi who went on to become the new owner after bidding Sh240, 439. Since he was the creditor in the case, the land was handed to him.

Now Wachira believes that he was the victim of a well-executed plan to disposes him of his property.

He moved to court to challenge the sale of the land claiming that the auction was fraudulent. Wachira questioned how Ruthuthi, an aggrieved party in the case, ended up being one of the bidders.

But Justice Vitalis Juma said no illegality was committed.

“I personally shy away from granting the decree holder permission to bid at an auction but it is not illegal so long as he gets permission,” the judge said.

Wachira argued that the land had been sold far below its true value and he was not notified about the auction.

A six-acre piece of land, he said, was worth at least Sh2 million. He questioned why the entire parcel of land was sold, rather than a fraction that would cover the award for damages.

Wachira claimed that the suit that led to the award for compensation was filed while he was in prison and he was not present during some court sessions.

Moreover, he submitted, the application for the sale of his land was filed and heard ex-parte because he had not been served with the application.

But the court ruled that he failed to provide sufficient evidence to warrant the setting aside of the sale and had not shown intent and the steps that he had taken to pay the sum.

“Had he been serious he would have deposited the whole sum by now,” Justice Juma said in 2001. The title to the land was transferred to Ruthuthi through an executive officer of the High Court.

Refused to surrender

Wachira refused to surrender his property to Ruthuthi and delayed his eviction by filling various applications seeking review of the court’s decision.

Before he was finally evicted from the land in 2008, Wachira had filed three other cases to contest the loss of his land. All of them were thrown out.

In one instance his lawyers failed to appear in court.

On May 12, 2008, Justice Milton Makhandia, sitting at the Nyeri High Court, issued an eviction order against Wachira.

He now lives in a shack on the road reserve beside the suit land. On Thursday last week, his family hatched a plan to forcefully repossess the land but this was foiled by police.

He was charged in the Karatina Law Courts on Friday December 8 for trespassing and malicious destruction of property and was released on a Sh30,000 cash bail.