Why the ghosts of Muiruri Gachoka's family land battle are back

Politician Tony Gachoka. [File, Standard] The widow of the late businessman Joseph Muiruri Gachoka is, once again, on the edge of losing the family's Thika farm following a controversial 'lightning speed' allotment of the property to a private company. Margaret Njeri Muiruri, mother of the politician Tony Gachoka and media personality Ciko Muiruri, is embroiled in a fresh dispute to save the property which also doubles up as a family home from the grasp of Floriculture International Ltd. The prime property comprises the family home, a coffee farm and touches on the Garissa Road exchange, Thika Superhighway, Chania River and Ngoingwa Estate. It is registered in a family company, Central Kenya Limited. Mrs Muiruri is the single majority shareholder and the estate of her late husband holds the rest. All her children, except Tony, are listed as shareholders. In the 90's, Mrs Muiruri had been involved in a similar battle against Floriculture International. Unbeknownst to her, a Sh45,000,000 loan had been taken from two financial institutions using the property as a collateral. When the borrower failed to pay up, the property was sold to Floriculture for Sh60,000,000, and later charged to another bank for Sh50,000,000. Tony was placed at the centre of these transactions which involved Katka Islands Ltd, Trust Bank Ltd, Trust Finance Ltd and Guardian Bank. In the ensuing litigation, the family maintained control of the property. The latest twist to the never ending saga entails an expired lease, alleged "senior people in government" influencing fresh allotment and assumed proxies acquiring fresh ownership for the next 99 years. ALSO READ: My mother is not suing me over Sh45 million family fortune- Tony Gachoka Through a Nairobi advocate Guandaru Thuita, Mrs Muiruri has moved to court to forestall what she describes as "suspicious turn of events" in which her pending application for lease renewal has been sidestepped for another renewal in favour of Floriculture. According to the Advocate, Mrs Muiruri had already obtained approval for re-issue and was still pursuing the application for issuance of allotment when Floriculture emerged from the blues with an allotment. In suit papers alleging litany of violations, the Advocate says Floriculture was previously registered under foreign nationals and had been dormant for three decades. "The shareholding has now suddenly changed hand to locals who are apparently proxies of very senior people in government," Thuita says. When she got wind of the imminent renewal of lease in favour of Floriculture, Mrs Muiruri says she lodged a complaint with the National Lands Commission (NLC) which halted the process. NLC conducted a site visit in Thika as it heard the complaint. In a swift turn of events, the lawyer says, NLC abandoned its own process and suddenly issued the allotment letter on September 4, 2025, to Floriculture "in circumstances that can only be termed as fishy." "Floriculture has now begun the process of acquiring a Lease and Title documents and will inevitably enter the premises and evict members of the petition from the only land they have called home for the last four decades," Thuita told the court. The history of the property dates back to 1985 when Central Kenya Ltd was owned on a 50:50 basis by Mrs Muiruri and her late husband. The pair purchased 85.72-acre piece of land from Gatumaini Farmers Ltd. From the sale agreement, the Gachoka's where to pay Sh2,500,000 but only take 41.56 acres while the government of Kenya was to retain 44.16 acres for purposes of road expansion. The entire parcel was thus transferred to the Gachoka's to hold the government parcel in trust, and to surrender it whenever required. By 2016, the 85 acres had shrunk to 45 acres, with 40 acres having been lost over the years to surrenders, easements and wayleaves. Gachoka died in 1988 and was laid to rest at the farm where his mother is also buried. The events relating to Floriculture and the financial institutions took place in 1993. Two of them, Trust Bank and Trust Finance later collapsed in impropriety. Mrs Muiruri moved to court in 1995 to nullify the sale and lost the case in 2020. An appeal is pending before the Court of Appeal. In the intervening period, the 99-year lease expired in 2005. Mrs Muiruri says she started the renewal process in 1989 and followed it up in 1992. At the time, the Thika Municipality approved extension of the lease for 45 years but the file for processing the same went missing. Mrs. Muiruri revisited the renewal in 2011 under the new constitution. The area's District Physical Planning Office and the District Surveyor did not object to the extension of lease. The Municipality thus approved the request and recommended the extension to the Commissioner of Lands. Her justification for renewal is that the property was of great sentimental value to the family as it is dotted with multiple dwellings of family members but is also the resting place of its members. The family has also retained possession of the property long after the expiry of the lease, has erected development on it, including farm houses and maintaining mature coffee trees. Besides, the family assumed ownership of the property when only one fifth of the lease period left (20 years). She feels that it is only fair that her family is granted a new lease so that they can make major developments on it. ASLO READ: Two families forced into mediation after 36-year battle over property On August 8, 2016, she obtained the approval of the County Government of Kiambu and submitted the same to NLC. In the documents filed in court, Mrs Muiruri says she was taken back to learn earlier this year that Floriculture had risen from the dead, applied for re-allotment and the processing was being "driven at unusually alarming speed." She claims the previous foreign owners of Floriculture had been kicked out of the country in the 90's in the wake of Trust Bank issues. One of the original directors of Floriculture in the 90's had been Satishchandra Venilal Naker whom Mrs Muiruri once described as a long standing businessman within Thika Municipality and friend of Trust Bank CEO Ajay Indravadan Shah. The present directors of Floriculture International have not been disclosed in the court filings. However, one Sharifow Abdirashid Abdul is mentioned as having presented himself as a director in a letter the Director of Survey has written to Central Kenya dated June 19,2025. In the letter, the Director of Survey recalled the Registry Index Map (RIM) issued to Abdul on March 10, 2025 after Central Kenya lodged a complaint with the NLC. The cancellation followed failed attempts to get Abdul to surrender the RIM. The Director of Surveys also wrote to her Thika counterparts asking them to halt the process of registering the land to Floriculture pending the resolution of the dispute. In June, NLC led by its Chair Gershom Otachi visited the farm. Soon thereafter, NLC abandoned the pending inquiry and granted Floriculture the allotment in a process which the widow claims reeks of "corruption, political influence or other ulterior motive." The allotment was issued on September 4, 2025 through a letter signed by a K.K Mutai "for Chairman NLC." The letter said it was offering the 37-acre parcel to Floriculture, on behalf of the County Government of Kiambu" subject to the company paying Ksh5,407,046 in charges. Floriculture's postal address is indicated as located in "Jamia." The allotment offer is valid for 90 days and was copied to Lands CS Alice Wahome, Director of Surveys, Director of Physical Planning and Kiambu County Government officials. It shows that the allotment was approved by NLC on April 3, 2025. "There was no justification for being in such a great rush to issue allotment unless there was a conspiracy to hurriedly do so before the irregularities pertaining to the process came to the fore," she says. Gachoka's widow is seeking a conservatory order to stop the issuance of the lease pending the determination of the dispute. The matter is pending before Justice Jane Onyango of Environment and Lands Court, Thika.

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