- Those who were arrested during the operation were detained in custody pending prosecution.
- A hoard of documents they had allegedly made were recovered in the operation.
Detectives have arrested six suspects they claimed are linked to a series of alteration and fraud of land documents in an operation in Ngara, Nairobi.
The team drawn from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations and led by the officer commanding land fraud investigations unit Wilheim Kimutai staged the operation following reports the group was making the fake documents.
The team stated that the suspects are part of a land cartel involved in defrauding Kenyans of their genuine parcels through changing ownership in both the physical files and the digital platform using fake documents.
Those who were arrested during the operation were detained in custody pending prosecution. A hoard of documents they had allegedly made were recovered in the operation.
According to Kimutai, the six were found printing fake land documents.
"They receive instructions from different clients among them brokers and officials who direct them to print fake documents and append signatures and stamps of ministry officials without their knowledge," Kimutai stated.
Among the items confiscated included four mobile phones, two typewriters, four printers, scanners, 11 incomplete certificates of titles and fifteen deed plans.
Also seized during the operation were two survey plans, a CPU, about 1000 unprinted title deed papers, 17 letters of allotments, assorted computation files, one logbook, one smart driving licence and about 100 different date codes.
According to Kimutai, a search was also conducted at the residence of one of the suspects and several items were confiscated.
They included four stamps belonging to the Ministry of Lands officials, registry index maps for Nairobi block 118 lands, 11 allotment letters, several land administration leases and nine deed plans.
The most targeted parcels include prime undeveloped parcels, those owned by foreigners, the elderly and the deceased.
Once the brokers have the targeted parcels at hand, they then engage the suspects to prepare and print fake land documents.
Thereafter the brokers engage some rogue ministry staff to insert the fake documents into the physical files and once that is done they upload the fake documents into the Ardhi sasa platform.
While this process is ongoing, the brokers have already identified a buyer and once the fake documents are uploaded to the Ardhi sasa platform, the buyer can conduct a search and by then ownership will have changed.
In cases where the parcel is not for immediate sale, the brokers transfer the parcels to themselves using proxy individuals or proxy companies.
During the arrest, one of the suspects swallowed his memory card to conceal evidence.
Another suspect ran away from the scene while delivering the title for printing while leaving his documents and phone at the scene.
Officers from the Scene of Crime Unit processed all the scenes and the suspects were later processed at the DCI headquarters.
The six suspects are being held in three different stations including Gigiri, Parklands and Muthaiga police stations awaiting presentation in court on Monday, police said.