Former Nairobi Provincial Commissioner Davis Nathan Chelogoi has been jailed for three years for defrauding a landowner. Magistrate Dolphina Alego handed down the sentence at Milimani on Monday, the Daily Nation reported. Chelogoi was a senior provincial administration official under President Daniel arap Moi.
According to Pulse Live Kenya, he was convicted last week on five criminal counts. The case concerned a prime 7.39-hectare parcel in Lower Kabete, which Pulse valued at KSh 1.3 billion. The Nation and The Eastleigh Voice put the figure at KSh 1.35 billion. The Nation described the land as an 18-acre parcel in Loresho. Pulse reported that business partners Ashok Rupshi Shah and Hitenkumar Amritlal Raja claimed the land. They told the court they bought it from Liney Company Limited for KSh 33 million in January 2007. The Environment and Land Court upheld their ownership in 2022, and the Court of Appeal later affirmed that decision.
In his defence, Chelogoi said Moi allocated him the land in January 1995 for KSh 2.48 million. He said his demanding public service duties delayed the paperwork. A title deed was finally issued on June 4, 2021. The magistrate found that he had not produced enough documents to prove the allocation or a lawful chain of ownership. Land Registrar Pauline Achieng testified that the signatures and stamps bearing her name on his documents were not genuine. The court also pointed to mismatched registry tracking numbers and missing survey records, deed plans and registry entries. Pulse reported that 19 prosecution witnesses testified, most of them from the State Department for Lands and Physical Planning.
His co-accused, former lands official Andrew Aseri Kirungu, was acquitted of conspiracy to defraud and abuse of office. Kirungu said his role was purely administrative. The magistrate said that files at the Ministry of Lands were missing or destroyed. This raised reasonable doubt about whether he knew of the competing ownership claims.
Capital FM, carried by AllAfrica, reported that Chelogoi's lawyer, Assah Kiprono, asked for a non-custodial sentence, citing his client's age and poor health. Kiprono told the court that Chelogoi had obeyed court orders throughout the trial. He also rejected claims of intimidation, saying no evidence had been presented. The magistrate, however, raised concerns about intimidation around the delivery of the judgment and about delays in the case.
Kiprono has applied for typed court proceedings so that he can appeal against the conviction, Capital FM reported.