Kiambu tycoon wants own son behind bars – Weekly Citizen

The Director of Public Prosecutions has given the nod for a Kiambu tycoon’s son to face charges of defrauding his father.
In what makes the case interesting, the father will be a prosecution witness in a case facing his own son and two others.
The tycoon, John Karoba Iroha, who hails from Githiga village and has vast business interests in Kiambu county, accuses his son, Reuben Wamburu Karoba of forging his signature to transfer a multimillion property to himself.
In a letter dated March 29, the DPP Noordin Haji through Kiambu senior prosecution counsel Kerongo Maatwa directed Reuben Karoba be charged with the offence of procuring execution of document namely application for consent of the Land Control Board by false pretences.
The DPP further said in view of the complainant’s statement and in the absence of any instructions note to lawyer Thomas Ng’ang’a from the complainant to draw the purported agreement dated June 11 2014, Ng’ang’a be charged with the offence of giving false information to a person employed in the public service.

The DPP Noordin Haji

The DPP further directed the person who was the lands registrar Kiambu as at July 28 2014 when false entries at the register in respect to the parcel of land Githunguri/Githiga/T408 were made be also charged with the offence of falsification of the register and abuse of office.
Two years ago, the tycoon sued his son at the High Court in Nairobi for defrauding him through trickery.
“My son illegally transferred the property to his name after duping me into believing he wanted to secure a loan from a bank,” Iroha swore in his affidavit.
But the son on the other hand accused his father of lying and working in cahoots with his stepbrothers to dispossess him. He said his father sold him the property for Sh5 million to develop it.
“It is, therefore, ridiculous, unimaginable and insincere for my father to disown his own actions and words, and to insinuate fraud in a transaction he was aware of and personally participated,” said the son.
Court documents showed the tycoon wanted to dispose of the property to finance his businesses.
The tycoon says the sale agreement between him and his son is a forgery, adding he never instructed Ng’ang’a to draw the agreement
Later, the stepbrother, Ronald Mburu, filed a case accusing Reuben of allocating the family property to himself when their father had only instructed him to hold it in trust for other family members.
The father at first swore an affidavit to support Reuben, saying he had sold the property willingly before recanting the evidence, arguing he was misled and that he was not in his right senses.
“I had absolutely no knowledge that my son had schemed to con me of my property. He had created a wedge between me and his step-brother and that is why I signed the affidavit to support him,” said the tycoon.
But the son accused his father of lying about his health saying he has never suffered mental illness.
For lawyer Ng’ang’a, this is the second time his name is featuring in a corruption scheme.
Ng’ang’a alias Thuku is facing charges of professional misconduct before the Law Society of Kenya Advocates Disciplinary Tribunal following a complaint of fraud by a 75-year-old widow.
The LSK deputy secretary of Compliance and Ethics Florence Muturi confirmed they have preferred charges against Ng’ang’a before the disciplinary tribunal.
The widow Mary Karanja accuses the lawyer of fraudulently excising part of her 24-acre parcel of land with an estimated market value of Sh1.5 billion in Nairobi’s Ruai area and disposing of the plots to unsuspecting buyers without her consent.
In her complaint, Karanja who is the administrator of her husband’s estate, urged the LSK to investigate Ng’ang’a’s conduct and involvement in all the fraudulent transactions regarding her late husband’s properties and in particular LR 9363/65.
She further wants LSK to restrain him from collecting money derived from the illegal sale of her property through Giathieko Bypass Ltd, a company she claims was registered by the lawyer to pass off as her husband’s firm, Giathieko Enterprises Ltd.
The widow has reported the lawyer to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations seeking his arrest to face the court of law.
She has also informed the National Land Commission, the Department of Urban Planning in Nairobi county and the Lands ministry.
But the lawyer denies the accusations and even threatened to sue Karanja for defamation.
Karanja says the last two years since her husband died have been a living nightmare. She wonders how a lawyer entrusted to file her succession matter could turn against her.
Ng’ang’a is a Githunguri-based lawyer with an office in Nairobi practicing as TT Njenga and Associates.
Karanja’s woes began when her husband died on June 25 2014. Prior to his demise, her husband had appointed Ng’ang’a to act on matters relating to the 24-acre parcel of land and the family later retained him to file the succession cause after his death.
According to records in the Department of Registrar General, Ng’ang’a registered Giathieko Bypass on March 21 2014, shortly before Karanja died of bone cancer.
Giathieko Bypass has him as a director with 12 shares, the late Stephen Karanja Kago (one share) and Titus Mbugua Kaberi (two shares). Kaberi is the widow’s son-in-law.
But the widow says Ng’ang’a registered the company with the sole motive of defrauding the family of their land. She wonders why the lawyer would allocate her husband one share and himself 12 shares on land that belongs to the family.
The widow says when she realised Ng’ang’a was selling the family land without her consent, she hired another advocate but Ng’ang’a refused to release the succession files to the new advocate.
Documents in our possession show Ng’ang’a through Giathieko Bypass fraudulently sold various parcels of land to Michael Wanjau and Roseline Wanjau and issued them with share certificates.
The widow further accuses the lawyer of forging a land sale agreement between her and Young Traders (Tigoni Ltd).
She claims she had been asked to sign the sale documents but declined fearing he would use them to transfer the land parcel.