More trouble for owners of tragic Solai dam

Owner of Patel farm Perry Manusukh Kanasagara (C) has a word with his lawyers at the Naivasha law courts.

Manshukhlal Patel and Perry Kansagra, two directors of a firm charged with the death of 47 people in the Solai dam tragedy, are now facing forgery charges.

Mr Patel and Mr Kansagra have been accused of forging a title for a 10-acre property in Nairobi valued at Sh2 billion.

A Nairobi Court has issued warrants for their arrest.

Arrest order

Makadara Law Courts Senior Principal Magistrate Angelo Kithinji issued the warrants against the two for failing to appear in court to answer to the charges.

The two are directors of Kensalt Ltd. The land whose documents they are accused of forging is situated at Kiangombe in Industrial Area, Nairobi.

The charge sheet indicates that they committed the offence on diverse dates between July 1, 1985 and July 13, 1994.

In a second count, they are said to have forcibly retained the Sh2 billion land belonging to Tuffplus Company Ltd.

“On December 23, 2019 at Kiangombe in Embakasi Sub-county, you were in possession of land 209/11410 of Tuffplus Company without right to be in possession of that land,” read the charge sheet.

“Tuffplus Company Ltd is entitled by law to be in possession of that land.”

They are facing two more counts of forging a title deed and sale agreement involving the same land.

Their co-accused who was present in court, James Wainaina, pleaded not guilty to the forgery charges and was released on a Sh1 million bond.

Lawi Kigen, who is also listed in the charge sheet as the third accused, objected to his plea taking on the grounds that the charges are premature.

Through his lawyer William Arusei, Mr Kigen told the court that he is being frustrated because he is a complainant in the matter at the High Court involving the land dispute.

Enough evidence

He pleaded with the court to defer his plea taking pending the outcome of the matter that is before the High Court.

Mr Arusei added they have enough evidence to show that Kigen is the owner of the disputed land in the case at the High Court, and that charging him at this point would be a violation of his rights.

The prosecution said the fact that there is a pending matter at the High Court is not enough to defer the plea since there is no stay order.

The matter will be mentioned on January 6, 2020.