How Kenya plans to break ‘Sh30bn-a-year’ land fraud scheme

Kenya is working to digitise all survey details in the country as part of a strategy to track and arrest individuals who execute fraudulent survey works that cost the government about Sh30 billion annually.

According to Lands Principal Secretary Nicholas Muraguri, corrupt and quack surveyors have been facilitating deals outside the legal channels hence denying the government the much-needed revenue.

“We are awake to the reality that we must equip and operationalise our new Geospatial Data Centre at the Survey of Kenya (SoK) headquarters in Nairobi,” Dr Muraguri said in an interview, adding that digitisation would ensure that “we are up to the task of cleaning and reorganising our survey records”.

The PS said the Department of Survey must adopt new ways of operation in the face of quickly changing technology and the perennial threat of tech-fluent criminals looking to make quick money.

Digitisation of records, Dr Muraguri said, will go hand in hand with “cleaning the register of survey practitioners to beat the habit where every Tom, Dick and Harry is putting up survey shops and kiosks across the country”.

READ: Outcry as Kajiado landowners battle extortion schemes

Among the many tricks used by rogue surveyors include submitting incomplete supporting documents such as letters of allotment and development plans – leading to lengthy delays in communication with licensed surveyors and other important departments.

By weeding out land crooks, the government hopes to maximise tax revenues by managing registration and rate billings. It also hopes to bring to an end the construction of homes on riparian zones, road reserves, or below high voltage power lines and on sewer lines.

The Land ministry had earlier blamed property developers for using shortcuts in procuring survey services with a clear intent to corrupt the process to save some money

“We are aware of a cartel which has membership of government officials, land crooks as well as crooked lawyers who ‘legalise’ cases of outright fraud in land transactions,” said a Lands ministry official.

The scam, which is spread across the country, has also left a trail of victims whose parcels of land have been illegally subdivided and sold off to unsuspecting buyers.

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