Milimani Senior Principal Magistrate Robinson Ondieki, on Monday, April 14, 2025, granted the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) four more days to detain two Ministry of Lands officials and six accomplices involved in the forgery of title deeds.
Delivering the ruling, Senior Principal Magistrate Ondieki stated that the DCI should be able to complete the investigations in four days, failure of which the persons of interest in the land fraud should be freed on a Ksh50,000 cash bail.
Further, he stated that the DCI investigative officers are at liberty to continue with their work even after the commencement of trial under Article 52 of the Constitution.
“Each of the suspect will be granted a cash bail of Ksh50,000 which is suspended until the Thursday, April 17, 2025 at 9 am when each of them will get his liberty by the payment of the Ksh50,000 cash bail,” Senior Principal Magistrate Ondieki ruled.
Additionally, Senior Principal Magistrate Ondieki ordered each of the suspects to report to the DCI Land Fraud Investigations Department every Friday at 10 am until investigations are complete.
Notably, he issued a stern warning to the eight persons of interest on interfering with the ongoing investigations.
“Each of the suspect is sternly warned not to interfere with investigations otherwise under Article 60(3) of the Rome statute the investigators shall be at liberty to apply for review of the bond terms including but not limited to increasing the terms and also to cancel the bonds terms,” Senior Principal Magistrate Ondieki ruled.
The DCI had been holding the eight persons of interest for 10 days and, on Friday, April 11, 2025, sought an additional 14 days to continue probing the matter.
While seeking more days, the DCI detective, Sergeant Nicolaus Osuri Otieno, urged the court not to release the eight persons on bail, stating that their lives were in danger as they may be hurt by the victims who have been affected by their fraudulent schemes.
“Our intelligence indicates that the lives of the respondents herein may be in danger from the aggrieved and agitated persons and need to be protected through their continued detention,” Detective Sergeant Otieno told the court.
Appearing before Milimani Senior Principal Magistrate Robinson Kebabe Ondieki, Sergeant Otieno told the court that some of the contacted witnesses had raised concerns about their personal security, emanating from persons believed to be accomplices to the respondents.
Notably, he told the court there was a great need to protect the witnesses residing across various counties to enable them to make statements on the massive documents recovered from some of the eight persons without any fear or intimidation.
Further, he told the court that owing to the massive evidence they have recovered, they need more time to verify and authenticate all documents, seals, and stamps recovered and ascertain the criminal culpability of each person.
He told the court that they had recovered forgery seals and stamps purported to be of various government offices, including those of the Lands and Interior Ministries, departments, and agencies.
“We have recovered seals and stamps purported to be from state department for lands and physical planning and ministry of interior and coordination of National government, county governments, advocates, land surveyors, Kenya Revenue Authority, banks among others,” detective sergeant Otieno told the court.
Notably, Sergeant Otieno told the court that the Judiciary was not spared by the persons of interest, telling the court that so far they have recovered stamps purported to be for the High Court and Magistrates’ Court.
“The Judiciary has not been spared either, and several stamps purported to be for the High Court of Kenya – Family Division, Environment and Land Court, and the Magistrates’ Court were recovered,” Sergeant Otieno told the court.
However, the defense team, led by lawyer Felix Kiton, vehemently opposed the DCI’s request, stating that there are no compelling reasons in the application barring the court from releasing the respondents on bond or bail.
He told the court that the eight have been cooperating with police during the investigations since they were arrested on March 28, 2025, adding that they have fixed abodes and are not flight risks.
“Your Honour, we are humbly requesting you to admit the respondents on bail or bond because they have families, and they are the breadwinners. We beg you to admit them on a reasonable cash bail of between Ksh12,000 and Ksh20,000 because they come from humble backgrounds,” lawyer Kiton told the court.
Meanwhile, State Prosecutor Evelyn Mutisya urged the court to grant the DCI the additional 14 days they are asking for, stating that releasing the persons of interest at this stage might interfere with the remaining investigations.
“We are praying the eight persons be detained further because if they are released on bail or bond now, they will interfere with witnesses,” lawyer Evelyn Mutisya told the court.
She also told the court that a laptop, eight mobile phones, one monitor, and three computer central processing units (CPUs) recovered from the suspects were forwarded to the Digital Forensic Investigations Unit for analysis, and they have not yet received reports from the forensic examiners.
The mention shall be on May 10, 2025, to track the progress.