Revealed: How powerful cartels steal prime land

Vicious cartels involving the ministry of Land, county government officials, influence peddlers and crooked politicians are choking public and private land with incredible boldness that threatens reforms in the sector, Sunday Nation investigations reveal.

The cartels, that include high ranking politicians, government officials, lawyers and police officers, target properties with expired leases, idle land and generally land belonging to foreigners who are old, terminally ill or dead.

With the patience of the vulture, they are said to be in it for the long haul in the event that the rightful owners put up a resistance.

While the police are involved in case eviction is needed, lawyers are on standby to defend the irregular or forged documents manufactured by these criminals. Some of the cases have been known to drag in court for years in order to wear out the rightful owners.

Land Cabinet Secretary Charity Ngilu Saturday acknowledged the existence of powerful cartels that were regrouping but vowed that she would fight them to the end.

“Wherever there is a high demand of any resource and the supply does not meet the demand, cartels and brokers are bound to come up and those who get such resources are the highest bidders. This is the war that I’m fighting,” said Mrs Ngilu.

She said that some of the high drama witnessed recently over land issues was staged by cartels trying to fight the government’s plan to change the way in which business on land is conducted.

“If you disturb a bush, snakes will come out, some biting because you have disturbed their comfort and habitat. Others turn on each other. What Kenyans are seeing is a fight-back from these cartels. But we will not stop battling them.

These are people who must be dealt with regardless of their position or standing in society,” Mrs Ngilu told the Sunday Nation.

We on Saturday established that at least 10 cases are reported every week to the Land Fraud Unit of the Directorate of Criminal Investigation, headed by Mr Nicholas Etyang.

Mr Etyang was not immediately available for comment but one of his officers, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the unit had profiled the gabbers who mainly operate under a “kingpin”— who may be a powerful politician or an influence peddler controlling the whole chain of fraudulent activities.

CRIMINAL GANG

In Nairobi’s Eastlands, for example, police sources say the “kingpin” could be in charge of a criminal gang which invades lands and sub-divides it before selling the rest for profit. This happens where there are no titles.

Other “kingpins” control a team of white collar thieves who forge documents for land situated in upmarket areas like Karen in Nairobi.
A self-confessed member of the cartels told the Sunday Nation that it was easy to get details of land to be targeted.

“We scout for the land and notify our contacts at the City Hall and Land ministry who do background checks on the ownership of the land; whether rates have been paid; whether lease has expired or whether the owner is alive or dead and weigh whether he can put up a fight before falsification of documents starts. It is work like any other for us,” he said.

The cartel members said that for every land grab there is a city or town planner (county level) and or officers in Land ministry (national level).

“The problem with the Land registry is that everything is distorted. This is designed intentionally so that these cartels can thrive,” says our source at the Land Fraud Unit.

The ministry has made attempts to digitise records but this is work in progress. But Mrs Ngilu has maintained the clean-up is on course.
“Going forward we are rolling out a digitisation programme that will streamline our systems.

We are also issuing three millions title deeds to poor people whose land was adjudicated in the 1950s because nobody cared to give them. You should not come to the Ministry of Land because you know someone but to get service as a Kenyan,” she said.

Documents seen by the Sunday Nation in relation to some of the contested lands all over the country, with some of them before the courts, showed the involvement of senior government officials at all stages.

CONFUSION

For instance, there is confusion on documents related to land being contested by Lang’ata Primary School and Airport View Housing Limited owned by veteran businessman Harban Singh and others.

Both the institution and the company have a legitimate claim. The matter is in court and the National Land Commission (NLC) is also seeking to resolve the dispute in a public hearing.

Records involving the land show various approvals by City Hall and Ministry of Land officials.

The first map dated 1972 shows that the school owned the land. This was carved out of 17.18 hectares of land belonging to government. The map also shows that between the school, where a hotel stands, is supposed to be a road. However, another map of 1989 shows that the land is owned by Airport View Housing Limited.

Mrs Ngilu spoke as Airport View Housing Ltd published a press statement saying that they would pursue legal redress over the Lang’ata Road land saga.