How cartels cash in on crooked land deals as landowners cry foul

Several families are being dispossessed of their land by conmen who secretly acquire title deeds in Bondo.

The Sunday Standard has established that all one needs to do is connive with the cartels to pluck out the original documents from the lands registry and have new ones issued to facilitate sale or grabbing of the property.

Last year, after Bondo Senior Lands Registrar Gideon Mwinzi announced that more than 30,000 title deeds were lying uncollected at his office, Mzee Cornel Sewe from Rahondhe village, Nyamonye sub-location walked into the lands office to collect the document.

But he was shocked after a clerk told him that a person who claimed to be his son had collected the title deed.

The lands registrar assured him that the matter will be addressed. But five months later, the 72-year-old who reported the matter at Usenge Police Station vide OB No 07/16/03/2018 is yet to get the title deed.

ISSUED TO TWO PEOPLE

For Monica Akinyi, 48, the journey to the lands office has been mind-boggling.

“Every time I visited the office I was told that it was not among the ones that had been produced,” Ms Akinyi said.

To her surprise, she learnt that the title deed bearing the name of her late father-in-law, Dison Oruko, had been issued to two people known to her.

The resident of Usoga village in West Yimbo location only required the death certificate of her father-in-law and a letter from the chief, stating that she was now the owner of land parcel No.619 Usenge, to be issued with the title deed.

According to records, the title deed was issued to a man accompanied by his son on November 27, last year.

A source at the lands office who spoke on condition of anonymity, said such cases are common and they involve clerks who are bribed to sneak out or hide vital documents.

“Although there are procedures and requirements of collecting a title, the procedures are always flouted,” she says.

She cited a case of a widow whose title deed was also issued to unknown person by a clerk without her knowledge, luckily she was able to get it back with the help of police.

Sources who spoke to Sunday Standard said there is a well-connected cartel that involves insiders, who pluck out vital documents like green cards from files without the knowledge of the owners.

Interestingly, the cartels maintain the original green card despite having processed a new one, such that when you visit the offices for a search, they produce it.

This explains cases of two people claiming ownership of one property.

Rodgers Ochieng, a human rights activist in Bondo, says the number of cases of irregularly issued title deeds are rising everyday. “There is a problem at the lands office and it should be addressed with the seriousness it deserves. We receive similar cases every week and if the trend continues, then many people will lose their land to these cartels,” said Ochieng’.

In Nyandiwa sub-location, Siaya Township, George Otieno’s hopes of getting his land back are fast diminishing.

INVESTIGATIONS

In 2011, Mr Otieno conducted a search on the land parcel numbers Siaya/Nyandiwa/2656 and 2657 and discovered that they had suspiciously been sold off and transferred to a prominent politician in Siaya.

“After discovering this, I went to the assistant chief who wrote to the registrar who thereafter placed a caution on the parcels, preventing further dealings on the land,” Otieno told Sunday Standard.

However, the politician has continued to carry activities on the said property.

Attempts to obtain a copy of a green card to enable him seek redress have not borne fruit.

Mr Mwinzi however admitted that such incidents are inevitable in a busy lands office with hundreds of employees

“Lands officers are human beings so you can expect such things to occur,” he said.

He said investigations are conducted and appropriate action taken against culprits.

“We have come across such cases but after we investigate and confirm that a document was irregularly issued, we initiate the process of revoking it,” he said.

He added, “You cannot claim ownership of land using a title deed that bears a different name, unless you change the details, which is also procedural.”