KDF soldiers patrol the Westgate Shopping Mall on September 24, 2013
after the terrorist attack. MPs say a scrutiny of the Closed Circuit
Television confirmed there was no looting by the multi-agency forces.
FILE
By GALGALLO FAYO
In Summary
- The club has filed a separate suit at the High Court seeking declaration that it is the original owner of the land before it was transferred to Actis.
- Kenya Forest Service has cast doubts over the validity of a title deed held by Actis and claims that the land is protected and part of Ngong Forest and that it is not among the seven, including Lang’ata Cemetery, Jamhuri Showground and Nairobi School, which were legally hived off from the forest.
Jockey Club of Kenya has backed private equity
fund Actis in its legal battle with the forests regulator over a land
ownership dispute that has derailed construction of a Sh2 billion office
block on Nairobi’s Ngong Road.
The club has filed a separate suit at the High
Court seeking declaration that it is the original owner of the land
before it was transferred to Actis.
The Kenya Forest Service has cast doubts over the
validity of a title deed held by Actis and claims that the land is
protected and part of Ngong Forest and that it is not among the seven,
including Lang’ata Cemetery, Jamhuri Showground and Nairobi School,
which were legally hived off from the forest.
The ownership dispute has stopped the building of
the 15,000 square metres office block that started in October last year
and was to end in December this year.
“A declaration that the grant issued over all that
piece of land known as Land Reference Number 9937 situated in Nairobi
and…valid to render the petitioner (Jockey) the registered proprietor of
the said land containing by measurement 407 acres,” reads the orders
sought by Jockey Club, a members-only outfit that started the sport of
horse racing in Nairobi 100 years ago.
Declaration
Actis, which has raised Sh24 billion from
investors for ventures in Africa’s real estate, said it acquired the
land from the Jockey Club of Kenya, which was offered the disputed land
by the colonial government in 1927 in exchange for property that is the
present-day Kariokor area.
The Jockey Club adds that its ownership came
before the land was proclaimed as forest in 1932. It argues that the
agreement with the colonial government overrides any subsequent
declaration.
The interest of Actis in the disputed land began
in year 2000 after Jockey Club obtained approvals from the Commissioner
of Lands to subdivide the property and change its user to allow half of
it to be occupied by shops, offices and residential units.
This paved the way for construction of the first
phase of the Nairobi Business Park, where the Jockey Club was offered a
minority stake in exchange for the land.
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