By The Weekly Vision Team
An alarming pattern is developing in Machakos County and Kenya in general, where land-grabbing cartels compromise government officials to alter official records. In one particular case, The Weekly Vision has obtained documents that reveal the fraudulent manipulation of LR.337/1673 in Mavoko Municipality, Machakos County.
These documents expose the deceitful act where the land mentioned above is in the process of being registered under a different name despite belonging to Helicon Enterprises Ltd. The cartel in Machakos and at the Ministry of Lands in Nairobi is said to have employed corrupt practices by bribing a senior lands department employee at Machakos County together with his official driver to tamper with crucial land ownership documents, specifically title deeds. Evidence from the available documents reveals the extent of fraudulent activities within the lands department of the Machakos County government.
According to the records, Helicon Ltd. holds a title deed on the property; they even paid land rates amounting to Ksh. 6,000 on June 8, 2022. However, they later discovered that the records at the Ministry of Lands had been tampered with in favour of a different company. Subsequent investigations have revealed that a junior county staff member (names withheld), known for wielding power due to his close ties to the top county leadership, misused his authority to pressure, threaten, and intimidate officers in the lands department into illegally and fraudulently securing land registration for a different company from the official owners.
To show just how powerful the cartel is, the said officer operates without fear of consequences, fully cognizant of the fact that it is unlawful and in violation of the law to manipulate the system, tamper with land ownership records and fraudulently obtain registration through misrepresentation, fraud, or the creation of falsified documents.
Emerging details reveal the said officer’s love for pocketing bribes and using the power of money to get what he wants from the county government. He is known as a man who is always willing and ready to participate in and engage in illegal activities, effectively earning the reputation of being a “gun for hire.”
The weekly Vision has uncovered that the county officer was purportedly offered payment by a retired senior military officer to forcefully and unlawfully evict squatters from his farm in Machakos County, where several of them were victims of panga cuts.
During the attacks, the squatters faced a brutal assault by hired goons who invaded the farm, resulting in severe injuries inflicted upon them using crude weapons. Consequently, they were forcibly removed from the farm.
The “gun for hire” officer displays a high level of arrogance, behaves with impunity, and proudly proclaims that he is untouchable. Despite reports of hired individuals causing damage and harm to innocent Kenyans being brought to the attention of the authorities, he continues to roam freely in the streets of Machakos town.
To be continued …
