Sly woman’s land rip-off

By Michael Obonyo

For obvious social economic reasons many of us have had an attachment to land. Its acquisition is a priority to many families. Otieno’s family is no exception.

The family’s ancestral land was very small therefore the need to acquire more elsewhere became a necessity. Otieno had died intestate and left inadequate land to be shared among seven sons. It became difficult to discuss inheritance and subdivision of the land.

As a way out, the family, with the help of their uncle, Odhiambo, decided to shop for land where they would all settle and do farming.

Since most of the sons in the family were town dwellers, this onerous task was left to their uncle who was based at their rural home. Odhiambo was a neighbour to a widow called Atieno who owned 20 acres of land.

Small hitch

"I have heard that you want to purchase land. Would you be interested in a portion of my land?" Atieno asked Odhiambo. He responded in the affirmative.

"However, there is a small hitch," Atieno offered. "My land has to be surveyed and subdivided to facilitate the sale."

Listening anxiously, Odhiambo wondered why that would be a problem.

"I don’t have money to hire a surveyor but I am willing to sell four acres at Sh55,000 per acre," she said.

This meant that the four acres would cost Sh220,000. Realising that the only obstacle between them and the land was parting with Sh12,000, Odhiambo offered to meet the cost of survey.

The subdivision was done and three parcels carved out. Two of them measured four acres each while the other one measured about 12 acres. She deposited the title deed with another elder by the name Otiato who was a close friend of Odhiambo.

She made sure that Odhiambo knew about it as an assurance that no other transaction would be carried out without his knowledge.

As a precaution, Odhiambo made regular visits to the Migori District Land Registrar’s offices to carry out land title deed search to confirm the ownership status of the parcel of land. He confidently pursued the deal.

Odhiambo paid a down payment of Sh100,000 and the woman signed the deal in the presence of several witnesses. Atieno, however, insisted that she would only transfer the land upon completion of the payment. Since it was difficult for the family to raise the money they decided that one of the sons, Joseph, would borrow Sh120,000 from the bank to clear the outstanding balance. It was agreed that soon after Atieno was fully paid, the two parties would visit the Land’s Board at the area DO’s office. The seller was to sign the documents transferring ownership of the land to Joseph.

Once the loan was obtained a date with Atieno was set and Joseph travelled to Migori. But she failed to turn up. She came the following day in a seemingly stressful mood claiming that her son was seriously ill and had to rush to Kisumu.

Unanswered calls

"I would have really wished to appear before the Land’s Board but with the prevailing situation I cannot think of anything else but my son’s well being. I hope as parents you understand," she said.

Her plea appealed to the sympathetic impulses of Odhiambo and those present. It was deemed fit to pay her the balance, which she gladly signed for. The parties agreed that the appearance before the Land’s Board to formalise the transaction be postponed until the following month to allow her to attend to the ‘medical emergency’.

A day before the next Land Board meeting, Joseph travelled to Migori. However, on the eve of the meeting, Atieno had not arrived and people started getting worried. Calls to her mobile phone went unanswered. The following day Odhiambo and Joseph went to the DO’s Office. But when Atieno’s name was called out at around 9.30am since her name was the first on the list, she was nowhere to be seen and neither had she communicated. Odhiambo and Joseph asked for some more time just in case she had delayed on the way from Kisumu. But she never showed up.

Strangely, Atieno’s name was called out twice from the list of those to appear before the Land’s Board raising suspicion in Joseph and his uncle.

"Is she selling a different piece of land or was she double dealing? They wondered. Enquiries at the DO’s office registry confirmed that Atieno was to appear before the Board twice on the same day over the same parcel of land but with different buyers. And that’s when it dawned on them that they had been conned.

Placing a caveat

They later placed a caveat on the land, which lapsed after 6 months. But before they could renew the caveat, Atieno sold and transferred the entire 20 acres and relocated to an unknown place despite a warrant of her arrest having been issued.