“ Weston Hotel Sits on Illegal Land’’ DP Ruto Finally Admits

Image result for ruto admits that weston hotel land is illegal

 

For the first time, Deputy President William Ruto has admitted that the land that his Weston Hotel sits on was illegally acquired.

Speaking on BBC HARD talk show hosted by Stephen Sackur, the Deputy President, however, aid his hands are clean as he “innocently” purchased the land parcel from its original owners, who had “illegally” obtained it.

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Mr. Ruto, however, says he is doing everything possible to ensure that the illegalities are amended.

“Tell me about the Weston Hotel, which you own, which is worth an awful worth of money, and which is sitting on illegally acquired land,” Mr. Sackur posed the question to Mr. Ruto.

In response, Mr. Ruto who looked composed said,
“Weston Hotel is a big story…,” said the DP, who was thereafter, interrupted by the host.

“It is, Kenyans are following very closely, and maybe [that is] why you are top of that [Ipsos] poll [which placed you at the top of the list of leaders Kenyans perceive to be most corrupt] …,” said Mr. Sackur.

“You would want to believe that Weston Hotel occupies half of Nairobi. Weston Hotel sits on 0.7 hectares of land…,” responded Mr. Ruto.

Mr. Sackur, however, chimed in before the DP could complete his statement:
“Illegally acquired land, which actually belongs to the Civil Aviation Authority, and then you miraculously acquired it and built a hotel”

“For your information, Weston Hotel was bought…,” replied Mr. Ruto.

“Illegally?” insisted Mr. Sackur.

The Deputy President, thereafter, let the cat out of the bag, admitting that the Weston land was, indeed, illegally acquired – by its original owners.

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“Not bought illegally. In fact, for the record, the National Land Commission has made a finding that Weston was an innocent purchaser for value from somebody who got it illegally, and preparations have been made constitutionally to restore that land to Kenya Civil Aviation Authority by demanding that those who sold the land to us must pay,” said the Deputy President.

According to KCAA’s legal services manager, Cyril Wayong’o, East Africa Community which collapsed in 1977 was the original owner of the land where Weston Hotel sits on. It had been developed and was being used as storage premises for the machinery and aviation equipment of the then Directorate of Civil Aviation (DCA).

Lawyer Ahmed Abdullahi who represents the DP told the national land commissioners that Mr. Ruto acquired the land in 2007 for Ksh.10 million from Priority Management Ltd and Monene Investments Limited.

NLC, in its recommendations, said they could not verify if the process of land allocation was illegal as none of the parties had presented evidence before it. However, NLC went ahead, to confirm that the controversial Weston land belonged to KCAA.

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