The story of Orbit Chemicals in Kenya is intertwined with a protracted legal battle over land ownership and the company's growth as a leading manufacturer of various chemical products.
Athi River, where the land dispute is taking place.
The Land Dispute: A Fight for Ownership
If Joseph Karuro Claudio had a crystal ball, he would not have left Kenya for an assignment in South Sudan immediately after buying a piece of land in Athi River on the outskirts of Nairobi.
In 2001, Joseph Karuro Claudio purchased a 22-acre piece of land in Athi River, intending to build a workshop. Twenty-three years later, Claudio is still embroiled in a protracted legal battle as he seeks to regain control of the 22-acre piece of land that forlornly sits along Mombasa Road.
Instead of the workshop he wanted to build on the land, there is a massive go-down belonging to Shah Prassul, the owner of Orbit Chemicals Limited. This land has been the subject of numerous lawsuits, starting when Claudio was 50 years old.
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Both the Environment and Land Court (ELC) in Machakos County and a three-bench Court of Appeal, have found that the title held by Shah was not acquired procedurally. The Chief Magistrate’s Court in Mavoko even found Mr Shah guilty of a conspiracy to defraud Claudio of his land, handing him a three-year jail sentence. It has been a drawn-out battle which has seen Mr Claudio accuse Shah of hiring goons to deny him entry into the land.
For Claudio, it all started on February 25, 2001. On this day, he was introduced to one Miriam Mwikali. Ms Mwikali, since deceased, was selling land which she co-owned with her husband Robert Mulei. Mr Mulei would later tell the court that his wife was allocated the land by the area councillor who went on to become mayor in 1991.
Like many landowners in Kenya then, the couple did not have the title deed to the land. But they had an allotment letter which was in the name of their company, Maji Safi Agencies. Claudio told the court that he verified the allotment letter at the land’s office and found it to be genuine.
He then did a search and found that the land measured around nine hectares. Before he purchased the land, Mwikali took him to its location. He never saw anyone occupying the land. Mwikali also showed Claudio the beacons of the land, together with the survey plan and Deed Plan.
The Survey Plan is for delineating boundaries while the Deed Plan is critical for purposes of title registration. Deed Plan is the document that gives rise to the title deed. The original Deed Plan, Claudio learnt, was dated December 30, 1981.
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Once he was convinced that all the documents were valid, Claudio, through his company Diesel Care Limited, entered a sale agreement with Maji Safi Agencies. He paid Sh6 million for the piece.
Satisfied with the transaction, Claudio left for South Sudan for an assignment. In 2008, three years before Claudio returned from South Sudan, one Joseph Odero was allegedly signing the Deed of Indemnity for the same land. By doing this, Mr Odero's objective was to return the title deed held by Claudio to the government and get a new one.
Mr Odero told the court that the reason was to change the user of land from agricultural to commercial. The import of this was that, Mr Claudio would then be stripped of the ownership of the land. The title deed that he held, the court heard, had been rendered null and void once Odero returned it to government.
Later, Mr Odero sold the land to Shah. Shah's company that allegedly bought the land is Megvel Cartons. The business man claims to have paid Odero Sh100 million for the land which the parties claim is valued at over Sh1.6 billion.
So, when Claudio came back in 2011, he was shocked to find developments on the land. It had a perimeter wall and a huge go-down. Claudio told the courts that he politely asked Shah to vacate his land. Shah declined. Claudio then reported the invasion to the DCI, whose investigation found that the title deed held by Shah had been forged.
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Shah, the court heard, refused to provide the land documents to DCI for investigation. But it was the four court cases- three civil and one criminal-that not dealt a major blow to Shah's claim on the land, they might also have opened the lid on how thousands of Kenyans are defrauded of their land.
The two Civil cases started at Environment and Land Court (ELC) through the Court of Appeal and finally to the Supreme Court. ELC and the Court of Appeal have in favour of Claudio. The Supreme Court said it had no jurisdiction to hear the case, while the Magistrate courts have found Shah guilty of a conspiracy to defraud the former of his property.
“In view of the foregoing and after a careful re-analysis and re-evaluation of the evidence, it is our finding that the appellant (Shah) has failed to demonstrate that the learned judge erred in law and in fact, in coming up with the determination in the impugned judgment,” said the three Court of Appeal judges.
The three judges included Hannah Okwengu, H.A. Omondi and M.Gachoka. “Accordingly, we hold that this appeal has no merit and it is dismissed with costs to the respondents,” they added.
At the Magistrate Court in October 29, 2021, Judge H. Onkwani found that the title deed that Shah possessed was fake and that there was no clear evidence that he paid Sh110 million to Odero to purchase the property.
When called upon to appear for investigate by the DCI over alleged forged documents, Shah refused to declined show up or hand over the documents. “All these point to a conspiracy to defraud; I have no doubt that the accused person conspired with other people to defraud the complainant of his land,” said judge Onkwani.
Mr Odero, 80, told the court that he acquired the land in dispute in 1985, and changed it from an agricultural to industrial around 2008. However, unlike in other cases of change of user, Odero did not involve a surveyor before obtaining a new land reference number and deed plan.
Moreover, the Deed Plan was altered in a red pen. Investigation also found that signatures of some land officials had been forged.
Orbit Chemical Industries: Products and Investments
Chemicals Industry Overview - Product Fundamentals
Catalyst Principal Partners, an East Africa focused private equity firm, has invested in Orbit Chemical Industries, a Kenyan manufacturer providing end-to- end manufacturing production for household and personal care products, industrial chemicals and agro-chemicals.
Paul Kavuma, Catalyst CEO, said: “In providing high quality, low cost manufacturing solutions at the highest standard of compliance, Orbit Chemical represents a unique proposition to customers that can outsource production with tailored specifications to a reliable strategic partner, such that the customers can focus resources on marketing and distribution to drive faster penetration and growth of their products across the region.”
Orbit Chemical is amongst the leading industrial companies in the sub-region, having evolved from a trader of chemicals to its state-of-the-art outsourced manufacturing model that is vertically integrated to provide high quality finished products, packaging and labeling to global multinational companies and leading regional players of fast-moving consumer goods.
It is well positioned with a diversified offering of world class brands in soaps, detergents, bleaches, creams and lotions, as well as commercial cleaning chemicals and hygiene solutions, traded industrial chemicals and agro-chemicals.
The investment enables Orbit Chemical’s ambitious expansion plans by increasing capacity of its existing lines, extending its products range into new synergistic categories, and regionalization of its manufacturing capability, thereby supporting the strong growth of existing as well as new customers across Eastern Africa and beyond.
Sachen Chandaria, Orbit Chemical Industries’s CEO, said: "Catalyst is the absolute right partner for Orbit.
Pesticide use in agriculture.
Pesticides and Organic Farming
Organic gardeners can use certain pesticides -- chemicals that are derived from botanical and mineral-bearing sources. The use of botanical and mineral-bearing pesticides, even though some are toxic, also can be incorporated into an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) approach to growing crops.
IPM relies on a variety of pest control means rather than on one product or method. Just as the more common chemicals are given toxicity ratings -- CAUTION, WARNING or DANGER -- so are chemicals from botanical and mineral-bearing sources.
- "CAUTION" means low toxicity
- "WARNING" means moderately toxic
- "DANGER" means highly toxic
Sulphur probably is the oldest known pesticide in use. Sulphur can be used as a dust, wettable powder, paste or liquid. Its primary use is to control powdery mildews, certain rusts, leaf blights and fruit rots. Spider mites, psyllids and thrips also are susceptible to sulphur.
Sulphur has the potential to cause plant injury in dry hot weather (above 32°C). It's also incompatible with other pesticides. Don't use sulphur on plants within 20-30 days of applying spray oils. Sulphur is non-toxic to mammals, but it may irritate eyes and skin.
Lime sulphur is made by boiling lime and elemental sulfur together. The mixture is used as a dormant spray on fruit trees to control diseases such as blight anthracnose, powdery mildew and some insects including scales, thrips and eriophyid mites. Its drawbacks include its rotten-egg smell, its potential to burn exposed skin and eyes and to injure plants if applied when temperatures exceed 26°C.
Sulphur products listed in Table 1 are registered in Kenya by the Pesticide Control Products Board www.pcpb.or.ke. These products are readily available in most agro-vet shops in Kenya. Organic farmers should consult their respective certification agencies prior to use of these products.
According to the Soil Association (UK) www.soilassociation.org farmers do not require permission to use sulphur, however, sulphur can only be used where there is an actual threat to the crop (i.e.
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