KIAMBU: The county government has warned unsuspecting land buyers against buying unserviced plots.
Lands Executive David Gatimu said most buyers are falling prey to con men who are out to rob them of their hard-earned cash.
“I want to take this chance to warn those people who are buying plots with no roads and water against doing so because as a county, we shall not approve their buildings for development,” said Gatimu.
Mr Gatimu said there have emerged many investors in the county buying large chunks of land, subdividing them and later on selling them; but they are not providing the essential services to their customers.
“Now that investors are not providing these essential services, who will provide them and yet their provision is mandatory?
“Even if one is so desperate to own a piece of land in the county, they should be cautious where they are buying,” he said.
Recently, there have been several advertisements in local media channels of pieces of land being sold in the county at lower prices, with land-buying companies urging prospective buyers to hurry up before the pieces of land are all taken up.
He warned directors of land-buying companies that they will be held responsible since whatever they are doing is criminal.
“We cannot sit and watch as our people are robbed. We will arrest those directors and take them to court,” warned Gatimu.
The officer noted some of the plots that are being sold are too small while the county recommends that a piece of land cannot be subdivided beyond 0.045 hectares since no proper construction can be done on such a plot.
Speaking to journalists at Oak Place Hotel along Kiambu road yesterday, Gatimu said the county government will demolish buildings that have not been approved.
“On Saturday, we demolished a number of houses at Ali-Juja estate because the buildings were not approved by the county and the owners had ignored a vacate notice and instead continued occupying them,” said Gatimu.
He said the county was avoiding mushrooming of slums in rural areas since some of the plots were very small and the owners had gone ahead to build permanent houses.
Gatimu said the exercise will be conducted all over the county since they do not want to take chances of letting the county turn into a slum whereas there are some areas meant for agriculture and others for development.
