Govt freezes renewal of land leases over rampant fraud

The government has frozen the renewal of all land leases indefinitely following reports that unscrupulous business people are targeting land whose previous leases belonged to Kenyans of Asian origin.

While making the announcement, Land CS Jacob Kaimenyi announced that his ministry together with the National Lands Commission will form a taskforce to review all land leases issued in the last six months.

According to Kaimenyi, this is aimed at identifying leases issued illegally further pledging that action will be taken against those who approved them.

Also present was Interior CS Joseph Nkaisserry who urged all those whose land had been grabbed by unscrupulous persons to report to the Lands Ministry for their cases to be investigated and proper allocation done.

On his part, ICT Cabinet Secretary Joe Mucheru pointed out that land cartels are using technology to orchestrate land grabbing and warned that the same technology will be used to nab them.

This directive comes barely a month after NLC issued a warning on the increasingly high number of illegal leases and grants being used by a growing number of land grabbers in the country.

The commission further announced that any lease or certificate of lease issued after March 2013 not signed by the commission is not a legal document.

In a statement in the local dailies, NLC Chairman Prof Muhammad Swazuri declared all leases that don’t bear the commissions seal are null and void.

Prof Swazuri said: “This is to remind members of the public, banking institutions and all other entities that any such lease or certificate of lease issued after 1st or March 2013 and not signed and sealed by the commission is not a legal document and should not be used for any transaction”.

NLC was responding a recent case that gained national publicity early this month where a fake land lease and order were used to destroy family property in Parklands.

Following this, Nairobi Senator Mike Sonko led a group of 300 youth to the land to stop the illegal development saying the rightful owner of the land is Ms Shah who acquired it in 1996 and later secured a 43-year lease renewal which is still valid.

NLC has since urged land owners to consult with the commission to ascertain the status of their leases.

“In addition, members of the public are advised to surrender them to the commission for correction and or regularisation,” he said.

Surveyors have also urged the government to take full control of land transactions in the country to cut down on cases of fraud.

Through the Institute of Surveyors of Kenya, the surveyors also asked that all land records be digitised to ease transfer and boost investor confidence.