Amos Kimunya tells court EACC recommended his prosecution relying on rumours
Former Lands Cabinet Minister Amos Kimunya has denied committing any act of fraud or engaging in any corrupt deal of transferring public land in Nyandarua to Midlands Limited while in office in 2005.
Appearing before Milimani Anti-Corruption Chief Magistrate Harrison Baraza on Monday, July 14, 2025, Kimunya said that he did not transfer the 25-acre land worth Ksh60 million as alleged by the Directorate of Public Prosecution (DPP) and the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC).
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Kimunya is charged with irregular transfer of the 25-acre land that originated from a 75-acre plot allocated to Njabini Agricultural Training Centre (ATC), a state institution, to Midlands Limited, a private company linked with him and his co-accused, Lilian Wangiri Njenga and Junghae Wainaina.
According to Kimunya, the EACC investigative officer relied on rumours and insinuations that had been made and recommended that he be prosecuted.
He noted that the investigator was ignorant and did not bother to check the title deed and the name it was registered under, and also did not check at the law that governed the Settlement Fund Trustees (SFT), a mistake he said he confessed to in court.
“Your honour, unfortunately the EACC investigator who was appointed and who by training is a valuer, did not bother to look at the title, did not bother to look at who was the registered owner and went by the rumors and insinuation that had been made to him and even decided to ignore, and never looked at the law relating to SFT or did not bother how it works but went ahead to make the recommendation for my prosecution purely in the bases of being the minister of lands,” Kimunya told the court.
Ownership of Midlands
Further, Kimunya told the court that Midlands Limited was a public company owned by close to 3,000 or 4,000 farmers and individuals within Nyandarua seeking to add value to their produce and stabilise market prices.
Meanwhile, Kimunya told the court that the Agriculture Permanent Secretary (PS), then as the officer administering the land under the SFT signed off that all procedures had been followed in the land’s registration.
The former minister also stated that the former Agriculture PS wrongly assumed that simply occupying land constituted legal ownership.
During his defense hearing, Kimunya also narrated how he was arrested dramatically and his arraignment in court, saying that the whole weekend the media was full of headlines of how the mighty have fallen, and “the Kibaki good boy” has been charged.
He stated that it was an unfortunate incident that affected him, his family and friends.
