Major investments in major towns not surveyed it has been unearthed
By
The Mountain Journal
A land digitalized land registry has been established in Laikipia
County to streamline land based transactions after decades of investors losing
their properties to gangs of middlemen assisted by the public servants.
It has been a milestone for the residents after the majority land fraud to the police after tracts of land bought by their parents between 1970s’ and
1980s’ changed hands without their knowledge.
The
digitalized land laboratory located in Nanyuki town is an initiative designed
to streamline land transactions by Laikipia County Government and National
Lands Commission (NLC) after it was established that some of the public utility
lands had been transferred or sold to investors.
The
county physical planning department can only account for 212 PDPs’ as genuine
ones in the county with a population of 518,560.
Photo/Governor Muriithi
Esther
Mumbi Mwai is a member of South Tetu land buying company is among the hundreds
of residents assisted by Directorate of Criminal Investigation (DCI) to have
their parcel of land returned after the rogue land directors had exchanged it despite having
paid all the requisite fee.
“Am
grateful for the initiation by the county government and other agencies that
hundreds of families will have their lands returned as the digitalized registry
will assist in tracking the ownership of the property,” said Mwai.
Paul
Kibuchi Mwangi recounts how their family lost a prime piece of land in Nanyuki
town after forged documents were used at the defunct Municipal Council of
Nanyuki in 2012.
“There
is need to ensure justice is done to have the lost properties recovered and
returned to the rightful owners,” said Mwangi.
Chaos
in the land transaction due to lack of digitalization led to circulation of
bogus PDPs estimated at 2,996 in the county and used to siphon
millions from prospective buyers.
Laikipia
DCI official Mr Francis Wanjau said land frauds are reported in areas of
Matanya and Ngobit (Laikipia Central) Segera (Laikipia North) following
increased complaints on swindling of lands by rogue public servants and land
brokers.
The
hot spots in frauds are also areas surrounding Nyahururu, Rumuruti and Nanyuki
towns, said Wanjau, adding that they are using a multi sectoral approach to deal
with the menance.
Some
of the fake allotments letters under DCI watch list are back dated and traced
to originate from influential persons who are being pursued.
The
Governor on his part said the digitalization follows the revelation that
parcels under public utility have been transferred or sold fraudulently; also
majority of the parcels of land sits on an unapproved Part of Development Plan
(PDP).
Ninety
percent of the PDP in circulation are not approved and are widely used by the
rogue real estate developers to hoodwink the potential buyers, observed the
governor.
“Over
5,000 maps have been digitized in the registry index map and 1,400 part of development
plans. A new lands registry has been opened in Rumuruti in efforts to
streamline operations through transparency,” said the governor.
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