A Kiambu County-based man has painfully narrated how he lost multimillion shillings in an attempt to purchase land.
Speaking on Citizen TV, the unidentified man revealed he was conned a whooping Sh2.7 million by a shrewd fraudster who pretended to be a landowner.
The victim narrated that in December 2023, he spotted the land in Mukutha, Ruiru, and, guided by a land broker, he met the purported landowner, Robert Waihumbu Nganga.
After thorough negotiations, he initiated the transaction of Sh2.7 million for ownership of the 100 by 100 feet piece of land.
“I met the seller (Robert) in the office of the land broker in Ruiru town. We finalised the deal because the man had come with a lawyer, making the process appear genuine,” said the victim.
How you can avoid getting conned when buying land
However, he was shocked to find out that the land belonged to someone else when he ordered his worker to clear the land, only for another person to appear claiming ownership.
“Wakati nilienda kwa plot nikaambia kijana jirani afyeke shamba, mtu akakuja na akasema shamba ni lake,”he said.
According to the victim the title name matched that of the genuine landowner, Robert Waihumbu Ng’ang’a, and the ID, KRA PIN, and title deed all aligned.
Through his lawyer, he went to the land registry to verify the documents, which turned out to be fake. Surprisingly, the documents had government seals except for the signature.
“All the documents were labelled by the land registry as fake. But surprisingly, all of them had government seals and rubber stamps, except the signatures,” the victim added.
Detectives from the land fraud unit in Juja have launched investigations and manhunt for the fraudster, who surprisingly had engaged a lawyer to facilitate the sale of the parcel of land.