It is bad news for former Principal Land Registrar Felix Mecha Nyakundi, after the High Court ordered him to forfeit assets worth a staggering Sh426.8 million, ruling that his wealth was wildly out of step with anything he could legitimately account for.
The judgment, handed down on September 18, 2026, was the culmination of a forensic probe by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) into Nyakundi’s finances and the sprawling web of properties, bank accounts and mobile-money transactions linked to him and his family.
Nyakundi’s career trajectory looked ordinary enough on paper.
He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Government from the University of Nairobi in 1993, joined the Ministry of Lands as a junior officer in 2006, and climbed the ranks to serve as Principal Land Registrar in Baringo, Kilifi and Thika.
His salary never told the same story as his lifestyle.
Between 2013 and 2024, his official gross monthly pay ranged from just Sh69,660 to Sh115,630, figures that make the scale of his accumulated wealth impossible to explain through legitimate earnings alone.
Allegations of a land-grabbing racket
The EACC’s investigation painted a picture of a registrar who allegedly turned his office into a private toll booth.
While stationed in Kilifi, Nyakundi is accused of manipulating land-allocation processes in the Chakama Phase I and II and Mavueni B settlement schemes, with parcels allegedly funnelled into the names of his wife, Stellah Nyaboke Otwori, and family-linked companies.
Investigators also allege that title deed processing was deliberately slowed down, a bottleneck that conveniently created room for “facilitation fees.”
In one striking example, a title deed was reportedly held up for nearly two years until a Sh400,000 payment was demanded for its release. Intermediaries Boaz Sila Oseko and Samuel Murungi allegedly acted as bagmen, collecting money on his behalf.
The money trail
Court evidence detailed a web of financial activity that investigators say could not be tied to any legitimate income source:
Around Sh103.81 million moved through Nyakundi’s personal accounts, including Sh50.39 million in unexplained transactions through Co-operative Bank and Sh16.32 million through NCBA.
Secondly, Otwori’s accounts at Equity Bank and Equity Investment Bank collectively handled roughly Sh115.54 million.
When the family attempted to explain the wealth as proceeds from farming, timber and catering businesses, the court wasn’t convinced — finding no sufficient documentation to back up those claims.
Justice Benjamin Mwikya Musyoki, invoking Section 55 of the Anti-Corruption and Economic Crimes Act, ordered the forfeiture of: 18 properties worth approximately Sh177.11 million, including the Bantu Hotel and Resort on Kangundo Road (Sh107.7 million), the SOA apartment block in Utawala (Sh35 million), a Mombasa penthouse (Sh19 million), and 11 parcels of land across Kilifi and Thika (Sh15.41 million combined).
The Luxury vehicles, among them a Toyota Land Cruiser Prado, a Mercedes-Benz and a Toyota Hilux and Sh233.58 million in bank and mobile-money holdings, plus Sh4.26 million in cash seized during EACC raids
The properties were spread across different names within the family, some solely Nyakundi’s, some jointly held with his wife, others registered entirely in Otwori’s name, with the hotel held under a limited company.
A fall from grace
The unravelling began in March 2024, when the EACC secured orders freezing Nyakundi’s assets and he was interdicted from his post.
By June 2024, he was in handcuffs, arrested in a separate bribery case over the alleged Sh400,000 demand for a stalled title deed.
Criminal charges followed, running parallel to the civil forfeiture case, while the Ministry of Lands moved to terminate his employment.
With this ruling, the state has now permanently stripped Nyakundi and his family of the assets the court says they could never justify, a case likely to be cited as one of the more sweeping unexplained-wealth forfeitures in recent memory.
