Deputy President William Ruto’s Weston Hotel is at risk of being repossessed and demolished by the government following new evidence that it was grabbed from the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA). On Wednesday, the National Land Commission (NLC) held the final hearing in a complaint filed by KCAA seeking to be allowed to take over the Weston Hotel.
The aviation authority told the NLC that the land on which Weston Hotel sits was government land but was lost through fraud orchestrated by powerful cartels operating in the lands ministry who worked with the help of its own employees.
How Ruto’s Weston Hotel land was grabbed from Kenya Civil Aviation Authority https://t.co/UKsQhhb9k7 pic.twitter.com/G8hWlfsj4d
— PK Kasirim (@pkasirim) November 1, 2018
Ruto, through his lawyer Ahmednasir Abdullahi, kept a spirited spirit to save his client’s hotel, saying KCAA had been allocated alternative land after surrendering the plot on Lang’ata Road.
Weston hotel isa-wololololo!
If found it was built on grabbed land, should it be brought down or such an investment should be "forgiven" ?
Ibomolewe / iwachwe #Brekko pic.twitter.com/2rhVH3de6O— MAJIMAJI (@MajimajiKenya) November 1, 2018
In response to Abdullahi’s claim, KCAA company secretary Cyril Wayong’o said the land they were supposed to be allocated as an alternative belonged to another government agency – Kenya Meteorological Department.
“The land mentioned by Senior Counsel (Abdullahi) belonged to the Meteorological Department. The KCAA management and the board have never at any one time consented, agreed, relinquished or surrendered nor ceded the plot by way of sale, transfer, gifting or otherwise given it to any other person,” Wayong’o said.
The NLC is expected to make a final decision on the ownership of the disputed land before the end of the year.
In event that @NLC_Kenya @maswazuri finds that the land on which Weston hotel stands is public land, I plead with @UKenyatta government not to demolish it but to consider transferring it to @KenyaUtalii so that they can use it for internship and training center for their students https://t.co/h6FMg2hQXu
— Knowledge Shared is Knowledge Preserved (@jackndunya) November 1, 2018