The on going debate on Deputy William Ruto’s Weston Hotel Land has taken a new twist after he was ordered by National Land Commission to pay for the land the current market price.
Senior Counsel Ahmednasir Abdullahi has come to his defense stating that Deputy President William Ruto should not pay for the Weston Hotel land since he bought it innocently.
This comes after the DP, in an interview BBC HARDtalk show hosted by Stephen Sackur last week acknowledged that the land upon which the establishment sits on was illegally acquired. Mr. Ruto, however, added that he is doing everything possible to ensure that the illegalities are corrected.
Speaking on Citizen T.V’s Jeff Koinange Live (JKL), the outspoken lawyer – however – said the deputy president was being unfairly targeted because he is a public figure.
According to Grand Mullah, as he is popularly known, Mr. Ruto “is not the first person who bought property that was taken by someone, everybody in this country has a title deed that has question marks.”
“Land in Kenya is problematic, and there’s a lot of land that was acquired during the crazy years in the 1990s. So if we make this national consensus that let us return this land, there’s no problem. But let it be across the board,” said Mr. Abdullahi.
“If you get the land as the first person, the land will always be taken against you. But if a third party buys from you, we call them innocent purchaser for value. So he gets a clean title notwithstanding the bad title of the first person; that is the law.”
The controversial lawyer further stated that he will file a petition seeking to have four Supreme Court judges removed over corruption allegations.
“We have written a letter to the Chief Justice and it will take us two weeks to compile our evidence and witness statements,” said Mr. Abdullahi.
He further dismissed attempts to bar Prof. Tom Ojienda from seeking a seat in the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) due to tax issues saying it was uncalled for.
He also, however, advised his fellow Senior Counsel to clear his issues with the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) before seeking the seat.
The Chairman of Al-Nur Media Africa also said it was justified for Deputy Chief Justice Philomena Mwilu to continue holding office despite being accused of graft.