The late Jomo Kenyatta’s dancer, Rahab Wanjiru Evans is set to get Sh. 1 billion pay deal for a piece of land she owns in Nairobi.

The piece of land that measures 0.7 hectares is situated next to Deputy President William Ruto’s Harambee House Annex office.

The payout follows a judgment by the National Land Commission that the dancer is the rightful owner of the piece of land. “The title to the estate of Rahab Wanjiru Evans is upheld,” said the NLC in a notice, setting the stage for one of the most lucrative land deals in Nairobi.

According to allocations by the National Treasury, Sh. 500 million out of the total Sh. 1 billion had been set in the budget ended June this year.

Another Sh. 500 million was set to be allocated in the current financial year, bringing the total pay Mrs. Wanjiru Evans’ family will get to Sh. 1 billion.

“Questions over the ownership of the land threatened to scuttle deal before the NLC backed the family of Ms Wanjiru, who was a former freedom fighter and a member of the Nyakinyua Group, which was famous for entertaining the late Kenyatta. She also served as Nakuru District Kanu Women Wing Leader during former president Daniel arap Moi’s era in the 1980s, underlying her proximity to power from the 1970s,” says a report in a local daily.

It further says that the proximity of Wanjiru’s land adjacent to government square added weight to the complaints that the parcel was public land. The land commission gazetted the open space behind the DP’s office for compulsory acquisition in June 2015 on security grounds. MPs had questioned the valuation of the property given that it had no buildings on it. Ms Wanjiru died in 2000.