Officials under probe over land fraud

Chiefs and their assistants are among officials under investigation for fraud, County Commissioner Michael ole Tialal has said.

He expressed concern about increased cases of fraud reported at land registries and cited Bondo and Ugenya sub-counties as the most affected.

The administrator, who was speaking in Siaya town on Monday during Governor Cornel Rasanga's state of the county address, said the fraudsters were targeting the most vulnerable groups.

"This is a matter we are taking very seriously because we have received several complaints,” said Mr Tialal.

He added that any officer found culpable would be arrested and made to face the full force of the law.

This comes a month after human rights activists said land and succession matters topped the list of corruption-related cases in the county.

The activists claimed that cartels had invaded land registries in all the six-sub counties.

Registry officials

One of the activists, Chris Owala from Community Initiative Action Group Kenya, accused land registry officials of using cartels and influential individuals to disinherit widows and orphans.

"The situation bad to the extent that the registry cannot provide proper documentation of land. At times, one piece of land is found to have up to 10 title deeds," said Mr Owala.

He urged the government to employ qualified personnel at the land registry and punish those involved in fraud.

At the same time, he asked the county government to make land audit report accessible to the public for scrutiny.

"It has been two years since the county government started auditing land, yet we have not seen any report," the activist said. He cited a case in Uyoma where a man has been accused of colluding with a land official to snatch a widow's land.