Businessman Eric Munene Mate, the CEO of Wiselinks Foundation has been acquitted in a multi-million-shilling land fraud case.

Munene and the co-accused were freed after the court confirmed that they were innocent.

The complainant further urged the court to allow the withdrawal of the case against the two accused persons.

In her ruling, Principal Magistrate Rose Ndobi allowed the withdrawal of the charges and directed that the cash bail deposited by the accused persons be refunded.

The two had faced several charges, including conspiracy to defraud, making a document without authority, uttering a false document, and obtaining money by false pretence.

According to the charge sheet, the duo was accused of conspiring to defraud M/S Placid View Limited of a parcel of land identified as LR No. 209/10991, IR 45896, measuring approximately 0.0590 hectares and located in Imara Daima. The property was valued at KSh 40 million.

Prosecutors had alleged that the accused persons forged a Certificate of Title dated October 13, 1988, purporting it to be a genuine document issued by the Ministry of Lands at Ardhi House in Nairobi.

Munene was also accused of allegedly presenting the disputed title document to advocate Kiprop Chepsergon at Finance House along Loita Street in Nairobi’s central business district on November 17, 2020, in an alleged attempt to facilitate the fraudulent land transaction.

In a separate count, Munene and Muthee had also been accused of obtaining KSh 11 million from Siko Woche Imala between November 19 and 24, 2020, by allegedly pretending they were in a position to sell the disputed parcel of land.