Armed land grabbers turn life into living hell for city land owners

Armed gangs of land grabbers are slowly taking over privately owned land parcels in Nairobi’s Eastlands area.

What you need to know:

  • They subdivide and sell the land to both unsuspecting buyers and daring small-time investors yearning to build family homes.
  • Homes and buildings on such illegally acquired lands are sprouting in all designs and could soon be demolished as land owners seek to evict them after fruitless and winding court cases which have given impunity a whole new meaning.
  • The land invasion scams have drawn in the police, rendering them unable to tame these groups

They are daring. They are in control. They are armed. They seem to be above the law. And they have no qualms about letting you know who is in charge.

Forget the neighbour who moves his fence a few inches into your land or the pesky little fellow who is ever encroaching on your shamba back home; the modern land grabber comes equipped with an automatic rifle — and a carefree attitude towards using it against you.

The modern land grabber, as we learnt last week, has also studied the judicial system well and uses it to his advantage.

MURDEROUS DISDAIN

For instance, the land gangs of Eastlands invade your land, manufacture a dispute and, before you know it, a court gives a status quo order, meaning that the gang continues to occupy your land as you flee because you do not want to live next to people who eye you with murderous disdain every morning.

Eastlands is in the grip of several such gangs, which are now trading under the banner of “self-help” groups.

In local lingo, therefore, the invasions have come to be known as “miradi”(Kiswahili for “projects”).

Here is how it goes: the groups lay claim to a piece of land, issue share certificates, and sell portions to unsuspecting people who want a piece of Kenya’s fat property pie.

Others dispose of the land, looping both small-time and established land buyers into vicious ownership battles.

As a result, several modern houses sit on illegal land in Eastlands and as the land owners or land-buying societies fight to reclaim ownership, they are forced to desert the land and flee for dear lives.

A FEW POLITICIANS

We spent about a month chasing this story and in the process came face-to-face with the armed land grabbers of Njiru, Ruai, Mihang’o, and Matopeni-Spring Valley wards.

Over that month, we also learnt that senior police officers who have served in the area have left footprints in the mess, with at least three of them building modern houses on what residents claimed were illegally acquired pieces of land at Chokaa area in Mihang’o ward.

A few politicians, both former and sitting, are also accomplices in the land invasions.

We asked the Nairobi County Commissioner, Njoroge Ndirangu, — who, incidentally, also chairs the city’s security committee — what he thought of this dangerous trend that could easily lead to loss of life. He said it was an unfortunate display of lawlessness by “forceful detainers” who reek of the highest level of impunity.

“The invasions have posed one of the greatest security challenges in the county,” said Ndirangu. “Apart from private land, the gangs target electric power wayleaves, road reserves, and undeveloped land.”

THREATS FROM RING LEADERS

The security team has listed about 50 pieces of land which have been lost to land cartels, while more than 100 others are embroiled in long-running ownership disputes.

“The danger is that the invaders have sold the land to third parties, and I think the best way for us to tackle this problem is not to deal only with the invaders, but also those who buy these plots without bothering about proper documentation,” said Ndirangu.

“How can you build a modern house, for instance, on a piece of land that does not have a title deed?” Local leaders who have tried to fight the gangs have stopped after receiving threats from the ring leaders.

One such case involves Mihang’o MCA Muiruri Kados, whose home was raided by a gun-wielding gang last month. Kados’s home has since been under 24-hour guard by Administration Police officers.

He is lucky because, as a local leader, he can afford such protection. For the rest, the easiest way out of the mess is to either shape up or ship out.

As a result, our team met dejected men and women dispossessed of land they struggled to buy over several decades and who risk losing hundreds of millions of shillings worth of property to these gangs.

Francis Ngugi is one such man. Literally on the run from one of the gangs in Njiru, Ngugi, also known as Wamugure, cannot access his land on the outskirts of Njiru trading centre along the Nairobi-Kangundo road.

SECRET HOME
The piece of land — registered as LR 1153/4 — originally measured 150 acres but was split into four different sizes in 1996 and sold to several investors, including Alpha Fine Foods factory.

The contentious piece measures 27 acres and was ready for sub-division and eventual sale.

Ngugi says that, despite having the documents of ownership of the land near the Njiru bridge, he was once attacked and left for dead by a gang that has laid claim to the plot.

“I had gone to show the land to some people who wanted to buy it when a gang of armed youths attacked us, saying the land was theirs. I ended up in hospital un-conscious,” he says.

With what appear to be fake documents as they are not archived at City Hall’s land registry, a dispute over the land was created, pitting Ngugi on the one hand and two other men who claim ownership. Documents indicate that the land’s original deed plan, number 202270, was issued in November 2012.

“I can’t go there. There have been several attempts on my life. As we speak, several people have bought pieces of the land but they will eventually lose them,” Ngugi warned from his secret home in Kiambu County.

PROOF OF OWNERSHIP

A kilometre away, a gang has taken over land belonging to Njiru Ageria Land Buying Society. The land, which measured more than 180 acres, now bears huge gullies after the invaders started quarrying.

Shaban Karanja, a member of the 800-member society, says litigation has not been helpful.

“Some people colluded with City Hall officials and manufactured documents to kick off a dispute. Our members were to get a plot each but they are still waiting,” says Karanja.

With a bundle of documents as proof of ownership, Karanja says the government can easily tell who the real owners of the land are, but somehow seems disinterested in the sticky affair.

Another member, Simon Njoroge, says the quarries have destroyed the land as the invaders make millions of shillings on property that does not belong to them. He says the police “are accomplices because they receive regular protection money”.

Njiru Ageria’s predicament is similar to what befell Giathieko Land Buying Society in Ruai along the Northern Bypass. Several quarry workers settled on the land (LR 9363/67) at the height of the post-election violence in 2008, locking out the land’s elderly owners.

However, the descendants of the owners of the society, who originally came from Githunguri in Kiambu County, have since reclaimed the land.

THREATENED TO KILL

In Njiru, a family is living in fear as they stare at an invasion by a gang. On 8 September this year, the gang, which trades as a self-help group, invaded Faiz Awan’s family land, destroyed a perimeter wall, and started clearing it for occupation.

The family has lived on the piece of land for more than 30 years, the land having been bought in 1954 by their late father, according to documents handed to government officers.

Awan’s wife, Shaida, says the family is worried, “but we will fight for this land to the end. We have all the relevant documents. They want to grab it,” said Shaida.

Armed police officers are now stationed on the farm as the family constructs a new fence.

Across Kangundo Road in Mihang’o Ward, the family of the late tycoon, Gerishom Kirima, family watches as another gang takes control of hundreds of acres of their land — one in the Chokaa area and another next to the controversial Njiru Ageria farm in Njiru that is under massive quarrying.

Kirima’s son, Steve Kamau, who has documents related to the land, says: “They have taken control. We can’t develop or even sell it. They have even threatened to kill us.”

DOCUMENT AUTHENTICITY

The family’s Chokaa land, which stretches along the border of Njiru and Mihang’o wards, is now dotted with permanent and semi-permanent houses belonging to private developers who might have been duped into buying plots in the controversial area.

The proprietor of Nyoro Construction, Josiah Njuguna, has also had a brush with the gangs, who have invaded his land in Mihang’o area. His machinery was burned on 23 August this year by a group of people claiming part of his 30-acre land.

He and his staff cannot access part of the land, which has now been put under a caveat. In the meantime, several houses have come up, but the authenticity of the owners’ documents is now under investigation.

Local elders say the upsurge in invasions became more frequent in 2008 and 2009, when former City Hall officials worked in cahoots with some crafty land dealers to defraud people of their land. The area at the time was under-developed, which made it attractive for the crafty groups.

Joseph Mutinda, a resident, is worried: “If we don’t sort out the problem now, the government might have to solve a much bigger crisis,” he warned.

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LEADERS CRY FOUL OVER 'NEGLECT' BY GOVERNMENT

Leaders in Kasarani, Kayole Central, and Embakasi East constituencies, the epicentres of massive land invasions, now say the government has neglected them by failing to protect private property in the area.

They claim that some senior police officers and provincial administrators are complacent in the fight against land gangs because they get protection money on a weekly basis.

“The police and some chiefs have been furnished with details of the invaders, but the problem is that they get money every week,” says Kasarani MP John Njoroge, citing Njiru and Ruai as sensitive areas to buy land without keenly scrutinising the documents.

“The organised groups are vicious and getting help from local police and chiefs has been hard,” says Njoroge.

PERFECTED IMPUNITY

As a result, victims are taken for a ride and frustrated by state officials as some want disputes arising from the invasions to remain unsolved so that they can remain on the payroll of the illegal occupiers.

Matopeni-Spring Valley MCA Abdi Guyo warns police that they will be responsible if land owners take the law into their own hands.

“People are getting desperate. They are losing land to groups that have perfected impunity just because they pay weekly protection fees,” says Guyo.

His ward was a fortnight ago the scene of a near-fatal confrontation between youths and the gang that left at least five people with gunshot wounds.

His Mihang’o counterpart, Muiruri Kados, says countless meetings with security agencies have not solved the issues and that as a result, the gangs are becoming more daring.

“With guns involved, the invasions have gone to a completely new level. When we report these issues to the police, they tell us that the suspects are licensed gun holders. Now we are basically stuck,” says Kados.

POLICE INDISCIPLINE

A frustrated Kados questions the value of having a government that cannot protect its people.

Kayole police chief Joseph Ndegwa refused to discuss the allegations and instead referred us to police spokeswoman Zipporah Mboroki, who said the police prefer to keep off land matters because they are not within their jurisdiction.

“We do not help solve such matters. Let whoever has a complaint against any police officer report to the various institutions that deal with police indiscipline,” she said.

Such complaints, she added, should be channelled to the Independent Police Oversight Authority, the Internal Affairs Unit of the Kenya Police, or even the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission.