Commissioner of Lands admits Syokimau title deeds were fake

By ATHMAN AMRAN

The Commissioner of Lands was at pains to explain why the Lands Ministry did not alert people who bought Syokimau plots of fake title deeds.

Mr Zablon Mabeya told a joint parliamentary committee investigating the demolitions that title deeds held by Uungano Settlement Scheme and Mlolongo Brothers Association were fake.

But he could not explain why the transactions continued and instead blamed the Kenya Airports Authority (KAA).

The MPs wondered why the ministry did not warn the public that there were fake title deeds before the land was sold and people put up houses. "What actions did you take on the fake signatures?" Mt Elgon MP Fred Kapondi asked.

Mr Mabeya told the committee chaired by Gachoka MP Mutava Musyimi that KAA should have acted when it saw construction going on.

He said the deputy Commissioner of Lands wrote to the authority on Uungano and Mlolongo and alerted them that their documents were fake in 2005.

He said the land was compulsorily acquired in 1971 for the Nairobi Airport development and that the authority was issued with the title on July 26, 1996.

Mabeya told the committee that it was only last Friday that he came to learn that Mlolongo Brothers had submitted a letter to the ministry on February 24 for conversion under the Titles Act in an alleged attempt to legitimise their title.

Legal notice

"They however, faked the signatures of an officer and that of the Lands Minister and conversed the title," he told the committee sitting at County Hall in Nairobi.

He said this was after the Mlolongo Brothers failed to respond to their letter dated July 22, 2009 asking them to forward a certified copy of their title.

The Commissioner of Lands told the committee he was not aware of a Legal notice signed by the Lands Minister on August 26, last year for the gazette notice which gave Mlolongo Brothers and Uungano Settlement Scheme the legal backing as owners of the land.

The notice was forwarded to the Attorney General, who in turn forwarded it to the Government Printer to be published as a gazette notice.

"We have not been getting the Kenya Gazette due to financial problems," Mabeya told the committee.

"Every statement you make raises questions," Mr Musyimi said. "Was the gazetted notice also fake?"

The Director of Survey Mr Ephantus Murage, however, admitted that there has been duplication of titles at the ministry in land allocations.

"We are not satisfied with the answers," Musyimi said and told Mabeya and other officials from the land registry to appear again before the committee next Thursday.

Meanwhile Mavoko Municipal Council Mayor Patrick Makau wants victims of the Syokimau demolition to be allowed to build temporary houses on the controversial area. And the committee has been added one week after Musyimi sought more time arguing that they have lot of work due to Eastleigh demolitions.

— Additional reports by Felix Olick and David Ochami