SK Macharia Land Row: On Friday, February 18, 2022, auctioneering company, Five Eleven Traders and Auctioneers, descended on a posh hotel in Diani, Kwale County armed with bulldozers. The auctioneer then went ahead to demolish the villas which are owned by a Polish national, sparking widespread condemnation on social media.
This ruthless demolition was part of a bitter fight between the an investor who owns the villas and tycoon SK Macharia who also claims to own the land where the hotel occupied. The auctioneer demolished the hotel after claiming that he had received court orders on behalf of Mr. Macharia to bring the hotel down. “We have a court order issued on February 17, instructing that we get police assistance to execute a decree issued on October 13, 2014, on this land,” Janvan Ngunda, who is one of the auctioneers, said.
The decree, which was certified on January 25 this year, declares that SK Macharia is the bonafide and legal owner of the 1.7 hectares parcel of land under title number Galu/Kinondo/50. The decree also declares that Ali Khan Ali Muses and Estate Sonrisa Limited be evicted.
However, the owners alleged that the order which was presented was not valid. “I can’t tell you what is happening. They have fake orders which are not related to us. They don’t have any order relating to us or property 48,” a woman who identified herself as one of the stakeholders said.
Macharia had in 2014 sued Ali and Sonrisa for encroaching on his land. A ruling in favour of Macharia was appealed by Sonrisa and Ali in 2016 and consolidated appeals were dismissed. “If the party encroaching fails to move and vacate, the party whose land has been encroached shall be at liberty after the said sixty (60) days to demolish such encroaching with the help of the court bailiff who will be assisted by the nearest Police Officer,” the court ruled.
The court ruled that the cost of demolition was to be paid by the party that had encroached on the property. The court also ordered that a public path between the land parcels accessing the ocean shall not be blocked.
SK Macharia loses Sh. 1.2 billion estate to grandson in bitter fight
In the suit papers, the bone of contention is the boundary wall. Sonrisa now says that their title deed erroneously states that their land measures 0.9 hectares while in the maps and measurements on the ground, it is actually 1.9 hectares. It is this difference that has brought about the conflict with Macharia, saying Sonrisa has encroached into the 1 hectare of his land.
However, in a rejoinder from her hospital bed at Palm Beach Hospital in Diani, Ms Iwona Strzelecka, whose two villas and another building, with seven guest rooms were demolished, said the auctioneers demolished the wrong place. She said the order was for eviction of persons on land Galu/Kinondo/50 while her property is on land Galu/Kinondo/48.
She also said that they were not served with the court orders. “What we have invested in for over 10 years was put down in under two hours without any warning and without giving us even one minute to remove our belongings. I’m left with what I had on myself,” said Strzelecka. “There are only three villas remaining. We have lost approximately Sh. 200 million,” the Polish national, who is married to veteran Kenyan rally driver Azar Anwar said.
