Civil servants face New Year axe for land lease forgery

Lands Cabinet Secretary Jacob Kaimenyi. PHOTO | JEFF ANGOTE 

By JAMES KARIUKI, jkariuki@ke.nationmedia.com

In Summary

• Prof Kaimenyi warned that any civil servants who have been working with land cartels to interfere with the renewal of leases will not be spared the purge that seeks to restore the sanctity of land documents countrywide.
• The minister who met representatives of the Asian community at his Nairobi office said county governments have no powers to allocate land to anyone and warned politicians against inciting their supporters to invade privately owned land on grounds that the leases had expired.

Hundreds of Land ministry officials were yesterday left with their necks on the chopping board for their involvement in the issuing of fake land lease certificates in the past six years.

Land secretary Jacob Kaimenyi said security agencies had compiled a list of civil servants who have been altering land records and transferring property ownership, in readiness for January sackings and charges in court.

Prof Kaimenyi warned that any civil servants who have been working with land cartels to interfere with the renewal of leases will not be spared the purge that seeks to restore the sanctity of land documents countrywide.

The minister gave the example of an Asian family living in Nairobi’s Westlands whose property was fraudulently taken over and their home demolished after senior civil servants colluded with land grabbers to alter records.

READ: City contractor who demolished Parklands home arrested

The minister said disciplinary action had been taken against the crooks ahead of their arraignment next week to face criminal charges.

“Offending officers have to show cause why they should not be disciplined and the Directorate of Criminal Investigations and the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) now have our report for action,” said Prof Kaimenyi, adding that some civil servants had been sent on compulsory leave to facilitate investigations into the fake title deed and lease certificates racket.

EACC chief executive Halakhe Waqo said a systems audit at the Land ministry had been concluded and that a report with the names of the civil servants involved would be released in January.

The racketeers are from land registries countrywide.

Prof Kaimenyi said he had ordered a lifestyle audit of all civil servants in the Land ministry to help rid the department of ‘bad elements’ who have benefited from ill-gotten wealth.

The minister who met representatives of the Asian community at his Nairobi office said county governments have no powers to allocate land to anyone and warned politicians against inciting their supporters to invade privately owned land on grounds that the leases had expired.

Murang’a, Nandi and Kiambu county governments have publicly expressed interest in the planned renewal of leases for the vast tea and coffee plantations in their jurisdictions and have proposed that the land be allocated to them.

Prof Kaimenyi said a task force will soon be formed to review leases issued in the past six years and any lease certificate found to have been illegally issued will be revoked and the leases restored to genuine land owners.

Prof Kaimenyi, who was flanked by his Cabinet colleagues, Joseph Nkaissery (Interior) and Joe Mucheru (ICT), said the review will help unmask the identities of civil servants who have been supporting illegal activities in the ministry to facilitate disciplinary action.

“Upon expiry of any lease, the ownership of the affected land reverts to the government and it is upon the National Land Commission (NLC) to inform the lessee of the expiry and ask them to exercise their pre-emptive rights by applying for renewal through the respective county governments before the NLC processes the renewal of lease,” he said.

Mr Mucheru said that all transactions would be tracked digitally and those found culpable punished. Each civil servant now has a password to access the land records and it is easy to trace those behind the shady deals, he said.

NLC vice-chairperson Abigail Mbagaya said Nairobi, Malindi and Kisumu were the hardest hit by the land cartels who use politicians to intimidate genuine land owners to give up their property.

“The cartels have made it difficult for us to get land records and where we order a revocation, the new land owners quickly run to court to challenge our effort. The Judiciary must also be forewarned of these cartels whose tactics include disappearance of files,” she said.

The Hindu Council chairman, Nitin Malde, said the community had been left to live in fear as the new ‘land owners’, who appear to enjoy protection from senior government officials, used goons to evict them from their property.

County Secretary Robert Ayisi sought to exonerate City Hall from blame, saying it only acted on the basis of documents issued by the Land ministry but were not involved in the renewal of leases.