Former Nairobi Provincial Commissioner Davis Nathan Chelogoi has been convicted of fraudulently acquiring a parcel of land in Lower Kabete, Nairobi, valued at Sh1.35 billion.
In a lengthy judgment delivered on Friday, Milimani Chief Magistrate Dolphina Alego found Chelogoi guilty on five counts, including conspiracy to defraud, forcible detainer, forgery and uttering false documents, in a dispute over a 7.39-hectare property claimed by businessmen Ashok Rupshi Shah and Hitenkumar Amritlal Raja.
“The magistrate finds that David Nathan Chelogoi is found guilty and convicted on Count 1, Count 2, Count 3, Count 4 and Count 5,” Alego ruled.
The magistrate found that documents used to support Chelogoi’s claim to the property had been forged, including the signature and stamp of a land registrar.
“The signature and stamp impressions were outright forgery,” she said.
Alego ordered Chelogoi to be remanded in custody pending mitigation and sentencing on November 2, 2026.
She also directed the Chief Land Registrar to cancel any parallel title deeds and registration details issued over the disputed property.
However, the court acquitted Chelogoi’s co-accused, former Assistant Deputy Director of Lands Administration Andrew Aseri Kirungu, after finding that the prosecution had failed to establish his criminal culpability.
“The evidence against him is insufficient to warrant a conviction,” Alego ruled, giving Kirungu the benefit of the doubt.
The two had been charged over the alleged fraudulent acquisition and registration of land parcel LR No. 18485, measuring approximately 7.39 hectares along Lower Kabete Road and valued at Sh1.35 billion.
The prosecution alleged that between May 2020 and June 2021, the accused conspired to defraud Shah and Raja by procuring the registration of the property in Chelogoi’s name.
During the trial, Shah and Raja told the court they had purchased the property from Lima Company Limited through a sale agreement dated January 25, 2007, for Sh32 million.
They presented a chain of ownership documents, which the court found was supported by an earlier Environment and Land Court judgment delivered on July 28, 2022, affirming their ownership of the property.
The prosecution called 19 witnesses, including land registrars, officials from the State Department for Lands, surveyors and forensic document examiners, to demonstrate how the disputed title was allegedly obtained.
Land registrar Paulina Achieng Pesa testified that her signature and stamp appearing on documents used to support Chelogoi’s title had been forged.
She denied signing or stamping any documents authorising the transfer or registration of the property in Chelogoi’s name.
The court also heard that a registry file relied upon to support the disputed registration did not correspond to the property in question but belonged to a different parcel of land.
In his defence, Chelogoi maintained that former President Daniel Arap Moi had allocated him the land in January 1995 and that he had paid a premium of Sh2.48 million.
He told the court that his public service assignments and financial constraints had delayed the regularization of his ownership documents until June 2021.
He also challenged the forensic examination of the documents, arguing that the original records had not been analysed.
However, Alego found that Chelogoi had failed to produce sufficient authenticated documentation to displace the complainants’ established ownership.
The judgment also addressed repeated applications that had delayed the trial, with the magistrate expressing concern over what she described as intimidation.
“If courts were to run by intimidation, would we have a judicial system?” she posed.
Alego said she had received letters from Chelogoi addressed to her personally, including copies sent to her employer.
“It is quite unfortunate that it has taken a whole year to reach this judgment,” she said, attributing the delay to repeated applications.
The conviction followed a ruling by Milimani High Court Judge Alexander Muteti, who on Thursday dismissed Chelogoi’s revision application seeking to transfer the criminal case to another magistrate or halt the proceedings before Alego.
“The application is dismissed. The matter in the lower court shall proceed to its logical conclusion,” Muteti ruled.
The judge held that Chelogoi had failed to prosecute his application seeking Alego’s recusal as directed by the High Court and could not use the revision proceedings to delay the conclusion of the trial.
Chelogoi is expected to be sentenced after mitigation on November 2, 2026.
Speaking to journalists outside court, Shah praised the Judiciary and the prosecution for securing justice.
Former Nairobi PC Chelogoi convicted in Sh1.35bn land fraud case
