In the past several months, more than 20 individuals have been charged in court over land fraud.

Ten people appeared before Chief Magistrate Lucas Onyina on June 4 facing fraud charges in a Sh1 billion land deal in Nairobi.

In the botched deal, Jacob Cartwright Owino, a registrar of titles at the Ministry of Lands headquarters at Ardhi House, Andrew Aseri Kirungu, a land administration officer, alongside Diana Njeri Muiyuro, James Mbote Gicheha, Joseph Njoroge Kimani, Joseph Gichohi Kinyanjui, Gladys Wambui Mwangi, Mohamed Jimale Abdille, Charles Mwangi Waithaka and George Ndungu Mumbi allegedly conspired to defraud Realty Brokers Ltd of a prime parcel of land.

False document They allegedly presented a letter of allot[1]ment (Ref. No. 93103) as genuine and issued by the National Land Commission to facilitate the registration of the parcel in the name of Mwadi Women Entrepreneurs Ltd. Other charges filed against the individuals include making a false document and obtaining registration by false pretences, and abuse of office for the first two named suspects.

 The suspects pleaded not guilty to the charges, and were released on Sh100,000 cash bail. One contact person, a land officer in Kirungu, failed to appear in court, citing illness. In another case, on July 8, three people were arraigned at the Chief Magistrate Court in Eldoret suspected of being part of an or[1]ganised criminal group that targets land[1]owners in that town.

The suspects – Paul Kirwa Samoei, Julius Kipkosgei Ruto and Tamar Cheptoo Birgen – were charged following joint investigations by the Land Fraud Investigations Unit and the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) headquarters.

 Forged title The three used a forged title deed to file an application in court and succeeded in ob[1]taining an order that they used to evict genuine land owners on October 7, 2022. In the alleged fraud, four people lost their 20-acre parcel of land valued at about Sh20 million that they had been legally occupying since 2001. The land is located in the Ngeria area of Kapseret constituency in Uasin Gishu County.

The DCI began investigations after receiving a letter on January 31 from the affected landowners. The letter requested an inquiry into the suspicious acquisition of a title deed on their land, registered as PIONEER/NGE[1]RIA BLOCK 1(EATEC)/1980. Investigations revealed that the Ministry of Lands did not issue the title deed used by the alleged fraudsters. The title deed was also not printed by government printers, and no records of its issuance were found in land registry records.

Furthermore, the green card for the land was not serialised, as it was not captured in the Uasin Gishu County land registry data.

 A document examiner’s report also indicated that stamps and signatures on an acknowledgment note showing payment for the land to the late Mark Too in the presence of advocate Paul Birech had been forged. The suspects pleaded not guilty and were released on a Sh500,000 bond. Six businessmen were also charged with defrauding a farmer’s society of 452 hectares of land valued at Sh11 billion in Mavoko, Machakos county.

The suspects – Mohamed Kuroyow, Mohamed Salat Ibrahim, Omar Khalif Adan, Adow Ahmed Mohamed, Jeremiah Mutisya Paul and Joseph Njue – appeared before Milimani Principal Magistrate Rose Ndombi on May 14.

The suspects are accused of defrauding Drumvales Farmer’s Cooperative Society members of the land. They denied a charge of obtaining registration of the land fraudulently between February September 13, 2018 and January 7, 2021.