Wary buyers steer clear of prime plot

It is strange to see an advert for the sale of land in densely populated Kisii Town.

And in a town very short on land it is even stranger for such an ad to stay up for months.

This particular one has stood for almost two years even though members of the increasingly enterprising Kisiis are known to leave no plot untouched.

“Plot for sale . . . 64.5 x 100ft. Clear, clean title ready,” the notice screams with the phone number of the seller. The metal sign is posted at the end of an iron sheet erected around the plot on what Google Maps identifies as Cemetery Road.

The sign is opposite the Kisii Level 5 Hospital morgue and a three-minute drive from the Kisii governor’s office.

The asking price is Sh20 million, but cost is apparently not the problem. The plot has been hived off a larger piece of land that once sereved as the cemetery for the defunct Kisii Municipal Council until it filled up. The area is called Nyambera, or “place of graves”.

Former Kisii public health officer Mellitus Kabar told Sunday Nation the plot had indeed been a cemetery but had never been gazetted.

“Neither was there a gazette notice to declare it full, which means it is at anyone’s mercy,” he said.

Mr Kennedy Bosire, a lawyer who represented the council when a case about the land was in court, said the person selling the land is by law the legitimate owner. The land legally belongs to the seller, who got its lease way back in 1994, so there is little the council could do to that end,” he said. “The court had given the green light for the institution of a process to challenge the way the lease was obtained.”

As the dispute over the ownership of the land continued, the council sent askaris to dismantle a fence put up by the developer.

“The fence had to be brought down because, much as the developer produced documents to back his claim that he owned the land, we were not sure of their credibility,” Mr Alloys Moseti, who was then mayor of Kisii, said in an interview.

The seller, a Mr Ombongi, said he was confident the papers he had for the land were legitimate and challenged anyone to check with the authorities.

Even with the affirmation that the land legally belongs to the seller, perceptions associated with death come into play, especially among the Abagusii.
A hard sell

Businessman Henry Nyabuto said it would be difficult to convince him to buy the plot even though it is very near the bus park.

“Everyone would want to go for it. But the fact that there are bodies beneath is a turn-off,” he said.

Mr Shinx Obare, a broker with Nairobi-based Outlook Prime Properties, agreed the plot was a hard sell.

“Matters of death are usually associated with divergent opinions,” he said. “People will want to speak of ghosts, others will come up with myths while others will cite their religious beliefs. It will not be easy to market such a plot.”

But how are full-up cemeteries supposed to be used?

Mr Kabar said there are regulations. “Once all the procedures are completed, it should be put into public use, normally 14 years after being declared full. It can’t be used for residence or personal use,,”

But the Kisii County government has plans for the land.

Its 2013-2017 integrated development plan indicates that the erstwhile cemetery will be turned into a public park.

“During the planning, the existing Nyambera Cemetery will be decommissioned and the site reclaimed to a public park,” reads the plan’s section on recreational facilities.