The arrest of a senior officer at the Ministry of Lands a week ago after he was linked to land grabbing has exposed how those tasked with protecting Kenyans are working alongside fraudsters.
The suspect was arrested at his office at Ardhi House by officers attached to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) Lands Fraud Unit in an investigation that has been ongoing since the government announced it had lost 367 security papers.
The security papers disappeared from the government printer. The papers are important as they are components in the titling process.
The incident attracted a public outcry as members of the public wondered how such important documents could just disappear.
The senior officials was arrested alongside seven others who were picked from different locations in an operation led by Mr Juma Machua, a senior officer attached to the National Police Service (NPS).
A senior officer working at the Ministry of Lands informed the Nation that on the day the arrests were made all staff at Ardhi House were called to a meeting chaired by Nixon Korir who is the Principal Secretary in the Ministry.
“He informed us that it was disheartening that still some members of staff were involved in land fraud and that plans were underway to make some arrests,” the officer who spoke in confidence as they are not allowed to address the media said.
The statement is a clear indication that land fraudsters are busy falsifying documents while conniving with civil servants to secure title deeds, robbing Kenyans of their hard-earned land investments.
According to DCI boss Mohamed Amin, the officers recovered a number of documents that were being used by the suspects to conduct land fraud in various parts of the country.
“Documents that had been stolen from the Government Printer, printing equipment, fake title deeds, government seals, forged land transfer forms, passport photos of over 100 individuals, and numerous land documents,” he said.
The eight are accused of advertising non-existent land and also reselling land to unsuspecting buyers without the knowledge of the legitimate owners. They would then issue title deeds that appeared to be legitimate
An officer who was part of the operation said that most of the fake title deeds had been prepared using the title papers that had been stolen from the government printer.
“The documents that were found were confirmed by senior officers at the Government Printer as those that were stolen last year,” said the officer, who added the passport photos were of victims that had lost their money to the suspected fraudsters.
Historical incidents involving land especially in Kenya has in the past seen a number of influential people in society being accused of being behind land grabbing.
At times the fraudsters even claim that they have purchased land from deceased people before their death using forged ownership and sale agreements.
So connected are the land grabbers that once they start the process of stealing a property from someone they work closely with police officers who are deployed to the parcel of land.
In some cases, the real owners lose hope and move out while others kick off the journey of seeking justice through the courts.
This week the US government raised an alarm about a renewed surge of fake title deeds in the country.
A report published by the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) which is President Donald Trump’s advisor on trade matters said fake title deeds were a barrier for investments in Kenya.
The report alleges that rogue brokers work with some government officials in the selling of non-existing land or double selling of land.
It stated that some of the deals are so rogue that people end up issuing fake titles to banks and are given huge loans.
“The process of leasing developed land and property is clear and established, but the process for obtaining leasehold title of undeveloped land is opaque and unreliable,” the report from USTR reads in part.
Mr Korir and Ms Alice Wahome the CS in the Ministry of lands have in the past said some officials in the ministry cannot be trusted and some have been under investigations.
“We have introduced a security feature in Title Deeds and if anyone presents a fake one our officials will quickly notice. Without divulging more information on the same the security feature differs per region,” said Mr Korir.
According to him, in the past some rogue officers in the Ministry could gain access in odd hours which he said was a contributor to land fraud and that was put in control.
He said any official in the ministry working during odd hours have their names registered and that forced most of them to stop the habit.
“We even had a number of brokers who used to camp outside Ardhi House, but these days they are not there. We had to do away with them as they were a great problem and contributor to the land theft challenge,” he said.
Asked on why there is a delay in the digitization of records within Ardhi House he said that it was because of the sensitive information being keyed into the internet which needed close supervision.
He said that already all records in Nairobi County had been digitalized and currently it was ongoing in Murang’a, Isiolo, Mombasa and Baringo counties.
