The tussle over the Sh8 billion Karen land is the anatomy of impunity and raw power by a section of senior Jubilee government officials.

In total defiance of a court order, the officials, MPs and their hirelings moved into 134 acres of land in the high-end Karen Estate opposite Hillcrest school and demarcated it.

The alliance of impunity between top government officials, police officers and MPs is akin to what the Russian writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn had in mind when he authored Feast of the Conquerors in the 1900s.

According to a protest letter written to Lands and Housing Cabinet Secretary Charity Ngilu on October 9, Muchanga Holdings complains that Land officials and police officers were supervising the alleged land invasion despite the court order.

Lawyer Cecily Miller for Muchanga Holdings points fingers at Mrs Ngilu’s officials and a Nairobi AP commander as the people who supervised the takeover.

“Our clients instructions are that this illegal invasion of our client’s land has been done under the supervision of your ministry officials, Kenya Police and Administration Police,” says Mr Miller in the letter to Mrs Ngilu.

On Saturday, we attempted to reach Mrs Ngilu and Inspector-General David Kimaiyo in vain.

The two did not immediately return our calls and text message inquiries about the matter.

Two years ago, Chief Justice Willy Mutunga warned that the Judiciary would not entertain disobedience of court orders.

FIRST SURVEY

Documents in court show that Muchanga Investments Limited entered into negotiations with Barclays Bank Limited for the purchase of land belonging to Arnold Bradley in 1983.

The land had been charged to Barclays Bank  and the title was discharged in 1989.

Mr Bradley had the lease of the land which was  issued in 1919 for 99 years. The  survey on the land was first done in 1921 by the East African Protectorate Survey Office.

According to documents, the title of the land was first issued to Mr Bradley by the British Colony of Kenya after he bought the land from Merril Goldberg.

In 1973, Mr Bradley left a Will in which he granted the land to Barclays Bank as his legal representatives. However, the Will, which had been registered at the High Court in Nairobi, was opened in 1974.

“I appoint my wife Jeannette Sarah Bradley to be the sole executor and trustee of my Kenyan Will. In the event of the said wife predeceasing me or failing to take out the probate of this my Kenyan Will then I appoint Barclays Bank to be the executor and the trustee of my Kenyan Will…”, says the Will written by My Bradley and signed by Mr R. Sewell as the witness.

In February 1983, Barclays Bank transferred it to Da Gama Rose and Muchanga Investments Limited.

Since then, Da Gama Rose has paid land rates to the land to the City Council, Now Nairobi County.

In 1985, Muchanga Investments applied for change of use of the land from agricultural to residential, which was granted.

Last year, Muchanga sought to sub divide the land in a letter to the Commissioner of Lands.

“We confirm that in accordance with your letter of March 13, 2013, we have now surrendered all the 199 deed plans to the director of surveys. Please now confirm that our original property No 3586/3, Langata Nairobi delineated on deed plan No 100122 is now reverted to its original state comprising 134 acres,” says Mr Da Gama Rose in letter dated April 17, 2013 to Lands.

Muchanga Investments had sub-divided the land and discovered a plot to grab some of it.

It was at this juncture that they withdrew the process and amalgamated the land.