Fraud syndicate
Last week served us shock news with media reports that several operatives had been arrested in connection with a fraud syndicate revolving around the Lands Ministry offices in Nairobi. The syndicate was reported to possess, or fraudulently prepare, all manner of documents needed to support registration of title. These include certificates of title, certificates of lease, letters of allotment, deed plans and even transfer forms, all crucial to the process of preparing titles on allocation or transfer of land. This makes it easy for the syndicate to drive the preparation of fake titles to targeted public land, or even duplicate titles to targeted private land.
The syndicate is able to forge signatures of retired or serving land administration officers, stamps of land registrars, and backdate documents prepared to suit its nefarious intentions. Collaboration with insiders makes it possible for such fake and irregularly prepared documents to be fed into the government database. That makes it possible for the syndicate to easily dupe Kenyans, and take their money. It complicates matters for Kenyans out to obtain land for residential and commercial investments, and also endangers private tenure rights for proprietors whose titles are duplicated. This negatively impacts investments, and increases land related disputes. The threat must therefore be accorded high priority by government.