A Lands court has ordered an auctioneer accused of violently evicting an Asian family from their Westlands home in Nairobi to swear an affidavit.
Justice Oscar Angote said Zachary Baraza of Siuma Auctioneers and an advocate identified as Nyakundi should give an explanation because an eviction notice was not issued by the magistrates court in relation to the property.
“That order was not supposed to be interpreted as an eviction notice. It appears your clients presented you with the wrong order. I insist that I get an explanation by way of an affidavit on which orders were executed,” the judge said.
At the same time, police have requested to detain Baraza for 14 days as investigations continue.
The Directorate of Criminal Investigations presented him before the court and asked that he be held awaiting further investigations.
“I and my co-investigators project that it will take us 14 working days to finish our investigations into the subject, taking into account the complexity of the ongoing investigations,” the DCI stated.
The complainant, Niraj Shah said that the auctioneer had led 25 people to their family home and demolished the enterprises.
According to the DCI, they have now discovered that buildings on the plot of land were severely vandalized, resulting in damages of Sh70million.
Statements submitted before the court disclosed that the complainant’s household goods and other personal belongings haven’t been found since Baraza was arrested.
Preliminary investigations revealed that Baraza may have ordered for domestic items and personal effects belonging to the petitioner to be sold.
The police instructed Baraza to remain in detention because they’re yet to obtain witness testimony or a thorough valuation assessment from a licensed property valuer to ascertain the true loss suffered by the family.
