Corruption at Kisumu’s Ardhi House killing investor interest

Apartment building in Kisumu town. Corruption, poor record keeping and duplication of title deeds at the Kisumu County lands office are highly likely to blame for the few real estate investors in the town. PHOTO| FILE| NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • “Land problems have, indeed, affected investment. Even the industrial area, which we sought for setting up economic zones in line with vision 2030, has been subdivided. The situation is scaring off investors,” he said.

  • To sort out the mess, Mr Ranguma said, the county has created a local land board to oversee the restructuring of land management in the area.

  • This is besides freezing the buying of huge chunks of land with the help of the National Lands Commission.

Corruption, poor record keeping and duplication of title deeds at the Kisumu County lands office are highly likely to blame for the few real estate investors in the town.

Property developers and county lands officials who spoke to DN2 said issues at the county’s Ardhi House had led to a decrease in investor interest in the county.

This is apart from an increase in the number of “land agents” who connive with junior land officers to sell land to more than one person.

The developers say that on average, a land search can take up to two weeks, when it should take no more than a day. Matters have been further complicated by the fact that most operations at the office are still being done manually.

“And to ensure services are slow, tedious and frustrating, some of the officers in  the department demand exorbitant bribes in order to facilitate the processes,” said one victim who requested not to be identified for fear of jeopardising his transactions.

They say the problem is serious, and that in a number of cases, the briefcase agents have managed to duplicate land records, ID cards, and Pin numbers to change title deeds with the help of junior land officers.

“There are no clear land records at Ardhi House. The situation is such that it becomes hard to complete a land search within a specified period. Investors are scared,” said Robert Kokonya, another victim.

An increase in cases of land grabbing in the county has further complicated matters, a situation governor Jack Ranguma acknowledged had affected investor confidence in the region.

Mr Ranguma said, the county could not get some 2,000 acres to set up special economic zones.

AFFECTED INVESTMENT

“Land problems have, indeed, affected investment. Even the industrial area, which we sought for setting up economic zones in line with vision 2030, has been subdivided. The situation is scaring off investors,” he said.

To sort out the mess, Mr Ranguma said, the county has created a local land board to oversee the restructuring of land management in the area.

This is besides freezing the buying of huge chunks of land with the help of the National Lands Commission.

“To come out of this situation, we have always vouched for willing buyer-willing seller agreements to get land,” Mr Ranguma said.

Last year, then acting lands Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiangi, while on a tour of the lakeside town, said Kisumu, Uasin Gishu and Nakuru were the counties where most public land had been  grabbed by individuals.

Dr Mating’i said that according to records in the ministry, the three had also witnessed the highest number of cases of disputed public lands.

“The three counties of Kisumu, Nakuru and Uasin Gishu have witnessed increased land grabbing. I am even told that the land adjacent to the Kisumu Prosperity Building, which houses the governor, has been grabbed by an individual,” he said during the

launch of a civil servant housing project in Shauri Moyo Estate in Kisumu.

This is even as he ordered an audit of all public lands in all the counties to ascertain their status in the ministry inventory.

In Kisumu, some of the disputed land included the kachok dumpsite, which city manager Doris Ombara said had been grabbed by a private investor, as well as the provincial headquarters.