Two senior land officials have testified in a case where three businessmen are accused of conspiring to fraudulently acquire a high-value parcel of land from Landmark Freight Services Limited.
Appearing before Magistrate Ben Mark Ekubi, the Director of Land Administration, Gordon Ochieng, and Land Registrar Stephen Chege Njoroge, stated that crucial documentation related to the parcel is missing, raising serious questions about the authenticity of the title.
Ochieng told the court that the allotment letter, the primary document used to initiate land registration, is absent from official records.
“It could not have been missing during the registration of the title. It must have been misplaced later,” he testified.
He further disclosed that there were two separate requests for consent to register the land, but neither disclosed the identity of the purchaser.
“The first application was made by a company, but it did not indicate which director initiated it,” he said.
The court also heard that documents previously submitted to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) contained discrepancies, including inconsistencies in the Land File (LF) number.
Ochieng explained that allotment letters are usually filed under a “general file,” which is then used to open a corresponding file for communication and documentation.
According to the testimony, the Commissioner of Lands granted consent to transfer the land on May 13, 2013.
The land was first transferred from Beba Freight Limited to Bharat Ramji Manji and Young Moon Choi, and subsequently to M/s Landmark Freight Services Limited upon payment of all necessary fees.
In the ongoing case, John Gitau Ngumi, Atek Otech, and Bernard Otieno Mallo are accused of conspiring with others not before the court to defraud Landmark Freight Services Limited by falsely claiming ownership of the land.
