Land surveyor accuses former NSSF boss Jos Konzolo's company of forging registration of disputed Karen land

Jos Konzolo

A land surveyor testified how the 134-acre land in Karen was fraudulently sub-divided.

Suleman Harunani swore that a deed plan of new sub-division by a company owned by former National Social Security Fund managing trustee Jos Konzolo were forgeries.

“I am the one who did the original survey and sub-division of the land in 1978 and thereafter dealt with other boundary disputes. The claims being made by Telesource Ltd are purely a fraud and forgery,” said Harunani.

Mr Harunani was brought as witness in the dispute over the Sh8 billion land between businessman Horatius Da Gama Rose and Mr Konzolo’s company, Telesource Ltd.

Harunani said he was familiar with the land property since 1978 when he was commissioned by Mr Rose to carry out a preliminary survey on behalf of his company, Muchanga Investment Ltd.

He testified that in 1985, he was called again to portion the land after which he subdivided it into 199 plots and some portions surrendered to the government.

“I submitted my subdivisions to the Director of Survey in January 1986. At all the material times when I was dealing with the land, it was solely owned by Muchanga Investments Ltd,” said Harunani.

He added that in July 2013, he was instructed again by Muchanga Investment to surrender the deed plans to the Director of Survey for cancellation, after which the land was reverted to its original state without any subdivision.

According to the surveyor, another dispute arose again between the businessman and Hillcrest International over the boundary and he was called  to draw the demarcations.

“I have always known Mr Rose and Muchanga Investments as the owner of the property since 1983. The purported subdivisions by other people are forgeries of my original work,” said Harunani.

Harunani’s testimony confirmed that there was collusion between some Ministry of Lands officials and firms to defraud Da Gama Rose of the land’s title.

Before he died, Da Gama Rose sued Telesource Com Ltd, Habenga Holdings, Jina Enterprises Ltd and the Ministry of Land for conspiring to grab his land. The case has had interesting twists and turns as his kin continue to pursue it. Hearing continues on June 29.