Forgery claims as family fights for Fourways Junction Estate

A mother and her daughter have sued their business partners in a multi-billion shillings dispute surrounding upmarket Fourways Junction Estate.

Nancy Wanja Gatabaki and her daughter Josephine Beatrice Gatabaki’s suit against Peter Kiarie Muraya and Susan Wacheke Muraya of Suraya Properties has brought a new twist in the long running battle for control of the Sh30 billion estate.

In 2011, the Murayas were forced to compensate the Gatabakis Sh725 million in an out of court settlement to unlock stalled construction of the estate.

Through lawyer Gatheru Gathemia, the Gatabakis now claim that the Murayas forged their signatures to register Muga Developers Limited which owns Fourways Junction Estate, and want the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) to charge them.

Mr Gathemia argues that despite lodging a formal complaint against the Murayas over forged documents for registration of Muga Developers Ltd which led to fraudulent land and banking transactions, the Director of Criminal Investigations (DCI) has failed to take any action.

Lost property

“Failure by the DCI and the DPP to take action against the Murayas has caused the Gatabakis to lose prime and valuable properties worth billions of shillings from the income being generated from the development of the estate,” said Gathemia.

The Gatabakis want the court to order the DCI and the DPP to investigate suspected forgery, carry out a forensic audit of the Muraya’s activities and prosecute them for engaging in criminal acts.

Nancy and Josephine claim they have the Power of Attorney to act on behalf of their father, Dr Samuel Gatabaki, whose signature they also claim was forged by the Murayas.

“What appear in the registration documents as our signatures are false since we never signed the documents. Even the advocate they claimed registered the company has confirmed in writing that she was not involved in the registration,” swore Josephine.

She claimed that a lawyer said to have witnessed the signatures being signed did not have a valid practicing licence at the time of registering Muga Developers Ltd.

“Although the registered company was intended by all of us to be a vehicle of partnership for developing the Fourways Junction Estate, it was fraudulently used by the Murayas to illegally take over the housing project and deny us our portion,” she stated.