EACC to scrutinise Tatu City records on 36 parcel of land to help in tax probe

The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission’s investigation into the alleged money laundering and tax evasion by directors of Tatu City company will focus on thirty-six parcels of land.

The anti-graft agency intends to scrutinise all documents related to registration and ownership of the plots.

EACC wants the Director of Survey to provide it with original Registry Index Maps, survey plans, maps, computation files and deed plans for the affected parcels of land.

They are LR.Nos.11287, 11294, 11288, 10083, 10083/2, 10877, 11285, 11289, 11294, 11428, 11486, 117; and 247/1, 248/5, 111/1, 110/2, 113/1, 113/2, 7192, 7386, 8182, 28867, 91, 11538/2, 11536/8(104), 6906, 7787, 295/15, 5815, 248/1, 1337, 1842, 8810 and 8321.

This comes after the High Court has granted the anti-graft body green light to unmask closely guarded secrets of controversial dealings by the officials of multi-billion real estate firm, Tatu City.

A Nairobi Anti-Corruption Court dismissed a petition by the developers challenging the investigative mandate and powers of EACC to obtain information relating to their operations effectively granting unfettered probe into the controversial venture bearing all the hallmarks of an international economic hit-men racket.

Lady Justice Esther Maina ruled that the anti-graft body has powers to investigate matters intertwined with corruption, including tax evasion and money laundering.

EACC accuses the directors, who include Stephen Jennings, the chief executive officer and founder of Rendeavour, the majority shareholder of Tatu City and Chris Barron, the country head, who has previously held the positions of chief operations officer, head of sales and operations manager, of transacting multi-billion relating to the sale of thousands of acres of land by Tatu City in Ruiru, Kiambu county without payment of taxes to the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA).

Investigations by The Informer established that according to the account statement dated January 1, 2010 to March 20, 2013, Stephen Jennings through Renaissance Partners Investment Limited as a facility agent is said to have borrowed a tranche D loan of a total of USD5,800,000 on behave of Tatu City without the knowledge of Local partners and submitted USD5,500,000 of the money to a hidden foreign account in Cyprus.

Further, in a separate suit where allegations of money laundering have flown, former Governor William Kabogo is in court in a matter where Jennings, the majority shareholder in the Tatu City projects has accused him on blackmailing them to surrender to him a five percent stake in a section of the multibillion-shilling project in May 2016 during his turner as the county chief.

While Kabogo claims to have acquired the land and paid Sh348 million to Rendeavour Services, a Tatu City shareholder at partial payment for the 100 acres, Jennings has challenged him to provide any agreement or evidence of payment, saying if at all he paid, the money, “is proceeds of crime and money laundering as it must have been acquired as a result of corrupt dealings during his tenure as governor of Kiambu County”.

The probe by EACC had gathered steam, with EACC, writing three letters on September 30, 2018, September 24, 2018 and November 2, 2018 to the ministry of lands requesting it be furnished with crucial information and documents regarding their transactions.

The letters, which were never executed due to the court orders, touch on various land parcels which form Tatu City but the offices, however, argued that the implementation of the request would have a ramification on the ownership, transactions and use of the said land parcels.

In its letter of September 30, 2018, EACC requested the Principal Secretary, Ministry of Lands to place government caveats on 33 parcels of land and on September 24, 2018, EACC requested for original documents, relating to 28 parcels of land or reasons that it was carrying out investigation of allegations of tax-evasion and money laundering.

Again, on November 2, 2018, the EACC requested the Director of Survey to provide them with original Registry Index Maps, survey plans, maps, computation files and deed plans for LR.Nos.11287, 11294, 11288, 10083, 10083/2, 10877, 11285, 11289, 11294, 11428, 11486, 117, 247/1 and 248/5, 111/1, 110/2, 113/1, 113/2, 7192, 7386, 8182, 28867, 91, 11538/2, 11536/8(104), 6906, 7787, 295/15, 5815, 248/1, 1337, 1842, 8810 and 8321, respectively.

The sleuths have also been demanding for – deed files, documents touching on the transfers, application forms for stamp duty, valuation reports, stamp duty receipts, official searches, rent clearance certificates, correspondence files, part development plans, computation files and survey plannon for the same land so as to facilitate investigation of alleged tax evasion and money laundering.

Aggrieved Tatu City and Kofinaf directors embarked on a hard dead court battle as it sought orders to have EACC stopped investigating them on grounds it lacked powers and mandate to do so and that by being allowed to take the documents, it chases their client’s sine no one would be willing to buy land which has encumbrances.

“Once original documents are removed from the Lands Office, then it means the owners of the parcels of land cannot carry out any transactions on the said parcels of land and that would affect the use of their parcels of land,” Tatu City argued.