Beware of cons, city real estate investors warned

Investors in Nairobi risk losing millions of shillings to fraudsters who use fake documentation to sell prime land. Most victims purchase land from dealers and agents whose authenticity has been challenged in court but who enjoy powerful connections.

Now, in Nairobi and Machakos counties, land owners are up in arms against what they say is illegal encroachment on their plots, which end up being subdivided and sold under names of non-existent companies.

In some cases, land owners say, efforts to survey and demarcate plots have been met by hostility from alleged grabbers, some of whom use guns and other weapons to scare away surveyor and security officials.

Githunguri Njiru Farm Limited in Embakasi was the first to raise the red flag last week. It says despite court orders and warning by various authorities, grabbers had invaded its prime plots in Embakasi.

David Kabogo, the company’s Property Manager gives an example of plots LR6845/16 and 6845/9 in Embakasi which he says belong to them but have been subdivided and sold to innocent buyers. “This is why we want potential buyers to check out with us before engaging in transactions with any other entities purporting to own the property,” Kabogo says.

MET WITH HOSTILITY

In an affidavit, the firm’s director Peter Kamiti Kamitha says there was an elaborate scheme to dispossess them of their parcels. Officials of the company say despite an order by the Environment and Land Court issued on December 14, 2015 barring subdivision, transfer, sale and further development of the plots, grabbers had continually engaged in transactions on the parcels.

“Since 2014, Githunguri Njiru Farm has been trying without any success to have the property demarcated by surveyors who are always met with hostility,” a protest letter by the company to the Director of Criminal Investigations department says in part. The group accuses a local politician in Mihango Ward of being behind the alleged grabbing.

When the matter came up for investigation by the Nairobi City County, a verdict was given on November 17 2015 to the effect that the contested parcels are held by Githunguri Njiru Farm Limited and that the properties are legally owned by the company.

“This investigation recommends in-depth probe to gather more evidence, trace and locate the fraudsters who sold the parcels of land in question to unsuspecting members of the public with a view of prosecuting them,” noted the Nairobi County investigation and information analysis department. The company now wants land buyers to be on the lookout for cons.