Three Government officials among eight charged with fraud

Three Officials at the Ministry of Land and the government Press are among eight suspects arraigned at the Milimani Law Courts after they were arrested by Sleuths from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) over land fraud activities.

The three include Dan Okoth, an assistant security officer at the Ministry of Lands and a member of the Survey of Kenya; Emanuel Matheka is a casual labourer at Ardhi House, and Clifford Wafula, who works at the Government Press as a printer.

The three were arrested along with land broker Patrice Josaya Tumbo, Livingstone Ambai Munala, Dan Adero Okoth, Nicholas Mukuna Ayela, Paul Muigai Kimani, Kennedy Mulatya, Emmanuel Matheka Mutuku, and Leonard Clifford Wafula.

The sleuths who were acting on intelligence pounced on the eight while they were planning to defraud innocent members of the public.

“Following intelligence received about individuals engaging in land fraud by forging land ownership documents and other government-related documents with the intent to defraud innocent members of the public of their parcels of land, authorities have conducted a multi-agency crackdown that has brought several suspects into custody,” the DCI confirmed the arrest in a statement.

The court granted the detectives additional time to complete investigations and pursue other suspects linked to this fraud scheme.

Speaking after the eight were presented at the court promptly after their arrest, the DCI stated that each member of the syndicate was arrested during separate operations.

They further revealed that during the raids in the premises owned by the suspects, the detectives recovered multiple assorted land documents belonging to different individuals, including dozens of plain and original title deeds, 287 assorted stamps, blank grant titles and allotment letters, 11 unused green cards, 101 passport size photos for different individuals, certificates of titles, and numerous transfer documents among other evidential materials.

The arrest of the suspects comes at a time when the land fraud menace has rocked the Capital, given the lucrative real estate business, with landowners having undeveloped plots waking up to skyscraper buildings built on their property by fake document bearers, who are either perpetrators or victims of land fraud.

Last year, the head of public service, Henry Koskei, announced that a total of up to 360 title deeds were missing as the Government printer was infiltrated with corruption.

In a gazette notice published in Koskei, stated that title deeds bearing serial numbers 5253001 to 5253367 had been reported lost.