Land rows jolt Nairobi real estate boom as cartels thrive on fraud

Kiambu Dandora Farmers Company Secretary Mwangi Karanja (left) addresses a press conference in Nairobi yesterday with one of the trustees, Joseph Nduati. [Courtesy, Standard]

Investors are angling for a share of land in areas neighbouring Nairobi in the wake of real estate growth occasioned by demand for housing.

Individual and institutional buyers have now invaded land near the city to build houses for sale or to let as the areas gain from easy access to the capital.

Kitengela, Isinya, Utawala, Embakasi, Ruai, Njiru and Ngong, Ongata Rongai and Kiserian have been top of the investors’ target list, with large tracts sold.

According to the Kenya National Housing Corporation, the property boom has seen home prices and rental income double over the past five years. 

However, stakeholders are worried that land conflicts could bring the lucrative sector to its knees. Bogus dealers and middlemen, who have taken advantage of the boom to irregularly acquire plots, have exposed buyers to endless legal wars with genuine land owners.

“Cartels at Ardhi House won’t give up while bogus agents and their accomplices exploit legal and regulatory loopholes in registration, transfer or sale of land in prime areas,” said Paul Okinyi, a land investor in Embakasi. 

The extent of land grab in towns, where cartels have been sub-dividing land and giving out fake title deeds to buyers, is unprecedented.  

In Eastlands, Kiambu Dandora Farmers Company has been fighting to retain its land after it was reportedly grabbed, subdivided and sold. The company’s secretary, Mwangi Karanja, says the grabbing of parts of the 818-acre land offers a glimpse of the rot in the management of land.

In 2011, the firm instituted a constitutional petition against the AG and the Commissioner of Lands. Mr Karanja, who spoke at a press conference in Nairobi, said their case is just but one among several that require urgent State intervention.

“We are only protecting our rights to land ownership. We demand justice,” says Mr Karanja. He added: “We are not an illegal group but a land buying company. We are a firm incorporated in 1969 which files returns and has directors.” They urged buyers to keep off unscrupulous middlemen.