Two Ministry of Lands employees were among eight people arrested in a multi-agency operation led by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) that brought down a land fraud syndicate on Thursday, April 3.
In a statement, DCI reported that one of them was an assistant security officer at the Ministry of Lands at Survey of Kenya, while another one was a casual labourer at Ardhi House.
Two other significant arrests were those of an employee at the Government Press, working as a printer II, and another individual, a land broker.
According to the report, the DCI launched investigations into the syndicate following intelligence received from members of the public.
Reportedly, the eight individuals were involved in forging land ownership documents and other government-related documents with the intent to defraud innocent members of the public of their parcels of land.
Each member of the syndicate was arrested in separate operations, and a raid was conducted on their premises, where DCI recovered numerous assorted land documents belonging to different individuals.
Among the items seized in the raid were dozens of plain and original title deeds, 287 assorted stamps, blank grant titles, and allotment letters. Additionally, 11 unused green cards, 101 passport-size photos for different individuals, certificates of titles, and numerous transfer documents were recovered, along with other evidential materials.
The arrests come at a time when land fraud cases have become increasingly common, especially in Nairobi, with blatant land scams cropping up on a regular basis.
In some cases, landowners have even woken up to find buildings being built on their parcels of land, leading to several properties being abandoned as cases drag on in court.
A gazette notice dated September 27 by the Office of the Head of Public Service disclosed that up to 366 title deeds were missing, prompting a public uproar over the implications of such news.
"It is notified for the general information of the public that Title Deeds bearing serial numbers listed herein are reported lost (5253001—5253367)," read part of the gazette notice.
The government distanced itself from the incident and clarified that it would not take any liability arising from any unauthorized transactions that led to the loss of the said documents.
