By Grace Gilo
Former Lands Commissioner and ex-Baringo Central MP Sammy Silas Komen Mwaita was arraigned today at the Milimani Law Courts, facing multiple charges related to a land fraud scheme involving property valued at Ksh 150 million.
According to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP), Mwaita was charged with unlawfully creating two title deeds to defraud the rightful owners of two prime parcels of land.
The prosecution told the court that Mwaita and his co-accused, Brian Kiptoo Kiplangat, conspired on or before March 30, 2001, to fraudulently generate title documents for Grant Title Land Reference No. 209/9968 IR No. 85847 without lawful authority.
The forged documents were intended to defraud Rose Njoki King’au of land designated as Plot No. “A”.
Furthermore, the prosecution revealed that Mwaita, while serving in public office, fraudulently registered both Plot “A” and an adjacent parcel identified as Plot “B”, without the consent or knowledge of their respective owners, Rose Njoki King’au and Micugu Wagatharia. This act constituted an abuse of office.
“In addition to the fraud charges, Mwaita faces several other counts, including conspiracy to commit a felony, making a document without authority, plus two counts of abuse of office and a further two counts of giving false information to public officers,” added the ODPP.
The court heard that Mwaita misled the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) officers in March 2020by falsely claiming that the disputed parcels belonged to S Haba Trustees Limited, a claim he knew to be untrue.
The prosecution asserted that he intended to prompt DCI investigators to recommend criminal charges against the rightful landowners.
“Mwaita’s co-accused, Kiplangat, failed to appear for plea-taking, prompting Senior Principal Magistrate Ben Mark Ekhubi to issue a summons for his appearance on Tuesday,” ODPP noted.
Mwaita pleaded not guilty to all charges and was released on a bond of Ksh 10 million or an alternative cash bail of Ksh 2 million, with two sureties.