Top lands officer, agent arrested in probe into lease of Lunga Lunga Ranching in Kwale County

A senior officer at the Ministry of lands is among two people who were Tuesday arrested in a police operation in a probe into alleged conspiracy to defraud Kwale County of 63,039 acres of Lunga Lunga Ranching.

The two who include a deputy director of land administration Jacob Selasio Kaburu and a land agent Frankilin Kamau Kamathi.

They were picked up from Ardhi House in Nairobi and driven to Kwale ahead of planned arraignment on Wednesday.

Detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations said they were investigating claims of forgery.

Those arrested are also likely to face charges of conspiracy to defraud contrary to section 37 of the Penal Code and six Counts of forgery contrary to section 345 as read with section 349 of the Penal Code.

The office of the Director of Public Prosecution has also approved charges of obtaining registration by false pretense contrary to section 320 of the Penal Code, uttering a false document contrary to section 352 of the Penal Code and forging stamps contrary to section 352 (a) of the Penal Code.

Investigations have shown the lease to Lunga Lunga Ranching Limited expired on March 1, 2022 following elapse of the 45-year lease period.

Then the officials of the company sought the services of the land agent to help them at the National Land Commission.

The agent was to receive a commission for the transaction.

Police say, the NLC and Kwale County Government had in 2019 already objected to renewal or extension of the lease on grounds that the Company had violated conditions of the allocation.

This included allowing invasion by all kinds of entities.

But police say the agent managed to forge numerous critical lands documents including he County of Kwale letterhead that read “Department of Lands, Energy, Housing, Physical Planning and Urban Development” against the authentic header that reads “Department of Environment, Land and Natural Resources Management”.

Police say the County of Kwale reference number where the forgery read CG/KWL/VOL.IV/22 dated January 11, 2022 yet the official references are issued as per the departments that issue the approvals and the purpose of the application captured in the reference.

“The purported application number C54/74 did not originate from Kwale lands offices.”

“The purported stamp impression on the forgeries read “Physical Planning and Housing Department County Government of Kwale” against the authentic stamp that reads “County Government of Kwale, County Physical Planner”,” says a police probe.

All these forgeries were then input into the official land records by Kaburu.