Kiambu Governor Waititu Admits to Illegally Transferring Widow’s Sh100 Million Land

Kiambu Governor Ferdinand Waititu could face abuse of office charges after he admitted to illegally taking away a widow’s two parcels of land worth Sh100 million. 

An investigation carried out by the Commission on Administrative Justice (CAJ) found Waititu guilty of using his power to fraudulently transfer Ms. Cecilia Mbugua’s land to Ms. Esther Nyatu.

After Waititu’s admission, CAJ, better known as the office of the Ombudsman, handed over the land’s title deeds back to Ms. Mbugua.

CAJ established that the two properties, Thika Municipality/BlockXI/877, and Thika Municipality/BlockXI/878 were transferred to Ms. Nyatu following a process facilitated by Waititu.

Kiambu County land officials told CAJ that Governor Waititu facilitated the transfer and provided all the required documents.
“The land registrar explained that his office received duly executed transfer documents and had no way of determining or detecting any irregularity in the transfer process,” CAJ said in a statement.

“We will hand over our report to the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Directorate of Criminal Investigations. We are not allowed to prosecute. We follow our investigations and if we find a criminal element then we forward the same to the relevant offices,” CAJ Chairperson Florence Kajuju added.

Ms. Mbugua said her land woes began in 2013 after she sought Kiambu County’s approval to develop it. The approval was granted but was later revoked on allegations that the land belonged to a Jua Kali association.

The widow went to court and won the case. However, Governor Waititu’s office later summoned her and issued an ultimatum to surrender two of her five plots or never get the county’s approval to develop them.

The property was later transferred to Ms. Nyatu, who was not even aware of the transfer, according to CAJ. The commission found out that Ms. Nyatu’s details, including copies of her ID card, KRA PIN, and passport size photographs were submitted to the county land officials by the governor himself during the illegal transfer process.

During an interrogation by CAJ officials, Governor Waititu surrendered the title deeds to be returned to Ms. Mbugua.