A section of the Italian community investors in Malindi and Watamu areas in Kilifi County have decried rampant land grabbing and property fraud running into billions of shillings.
The group now want President William Ruto to intervene and protect them since the illegalities was denying the country the much-needed investments and creation of jobs.
Through their representative Cattani Alberto, the investors that include Marco Angelo Alimonti, Pusterla Giuseppe, and Bresciani Aldo and their foreign partners, they claim to have lost property valued at Sh. 90 billion spread from Watamu to Malindi beaches.
Alberto who is holding the power of attorney for the three said that they first arrived in Malindi between 2005 and 2006 after being invited by their two friends who later introduced them to investment opportunities.
They formed five companies that included Denman, Bayview, Holborn, Casuarina and Antniacha through which they bought properties in Watamu and Malindi over a period of time.
According to Alberto, the two friends and two other Kenyans became partners in the companies and they would receive huge sums of money in foreign currency to purchase property on their behalf but everything changed in 2013 when a beach plot was irregularly transferred to one of the Kenyan without the knowledge of Almonti, Pusterla and Aldo and later sold for USD 7 million.
“There are some friends who arrived from Italy in 2006 and 2007 and later they wanted to invest a lot of money in the country but as we talk, almost all the properties they bought have been stolen and sold.
Alimonti, Pusterla and Aldo who were majority shareholders in the companies used to send huge amounts of money to the Kenyan partners gradually to buy land, little did they know that they will lose all that,” he said.
He added that among properties they lost included 90 acres of land meant for the construction of a five star, 120 room beach resort that was to cost Sh. 60 billion in Watamu, several plots in the same area, a 13 acre plot in Malindi town and Casuarina Commercial Center in Malindi.
Some other properties at risk of being lost include Le Pleadi, Villa Susanna and the former Pata Pata beach club all in Malindi town.
“The partners whom I term as fraudsters used to call and convince the three guys that a plot had been found and money was needed and the money was send.
It is one time that I realized that one property had been sold and on further investigation, that’s is when I found out that almost all companies details had been changed and Alimonti, Pusterla and Aldo were no longer directors of the five companies,” he said.
He added that the fraudsters used lawyers, ministry of lands officials and officers at the Registrar of Companies to change particulars and transfer all shares to themselves adding that Malindi town was full of fraudsters salivating for people’s properties.
He claimed that the alleged fraud on the transfer of land was done with the help of a lawyer while altering of land documents was aided by ministry of lands officials at the Lands office while at the Registrar of Companies, their CR12 document was altered hence pushing them out of the companies as directors and shareholders.
“Here at Le Pleadi, here is someone who came with an excavator and tried to force a road on the property and they were planning to steal it. I want to ask President Ruto to act fast so that investors can be protected from these criminals,” he said.
Alberto added that his friends last stepped in the country in 2014 and are afraid to come back after being threatened by their Kenyan ‘partners’ that they will be arrested if they try to come back.
“I wish Ruto could understand our plight and intervene because Kenya is losing investments because of property criminals,” he said.
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