Land official casts doubt on 50-acre title deed roped in land tussle

Lawyer Prof. Tom Ojienda (right)  cross examine  Omar Mohamed Omar  before Nakuru Environment and Lands Judge Justice Antony Ombwayo on July 30, 2024, during the hearing of a case in which Omar has sued Joshua Kulei over the ownership of a Sh350 million parcel of land. [Kipsang Joseph, Standard]

The Chief Land Registrar has cast doubt on the authenticity of a title deed held by two individuals fighting over a 50-acre land with businessman Joshua Kulei.

Chief Land Registrar David Nyandoro testified in a case where Omar Mohamed Omar and Patrick Maina Wakanda have sued Kulei, Chief Land Registrar, Attorney General, and Sian Enterprises Ltd over land ownership.

Omar and Wakanda claim Agricultural Development Corporation (ADC) allotted them 20.24 hectares of land following an application and upon compliance with the conditions in the offer letter.

Omar who appeared in court in July told the court that he first applied for land on October 8, 1995, together with his age mate Wakanda, at about 21, and was issued with the title deed in 1996.

Kulei through lawyers Prof Tom Ojienda, Cecilia Misiati, and Memory Apiyo said he acquired the land from former Cabinet Secretary the late Joseph Nkaiserry.

He said he realised that he had been dispossessed of the land on January 19 when a fence around it was removed and a temporary house constructed.

Kulei said ADC transferred the property to Nkaiserry on January 21, 1991, and registered on January 22, 1991, for consideration of Sh60, 015 .63. Nkaiserry was issued with a certificate of title dated February 22, 1991.

In March 1998, Sian agreed to buy the property for Sh5.5 million, which was paid in two installments on March 23, 1998, and July 23, 1998.

Nyandoro while responding to a question by Prof Ojienda about the authenticity of the title held by Omar and Wakanda said the title is not authentic.

Ojienda noted that the title deed held by the two is fake.

“I will say it is not authentic,” said Nyandoro.

Prof Ojienda while cross-examining Nyandoro sought to know why he referred to a certificate of title for Omar and Wakanda as not being authentic and he (Nyandoro) said the entry where the title originated from in terms of particulars of ownership is not the same.

The title in the name of Omar and Wakanda he noted refers to LR No 13287/99 with the same acreage but the entry in the mother title does not bear the name of Wakanda and Omar but bears the name of Nkaiserry.

The title in the name of the two, he noted, is certified as a true copy of the original signed by one of his registrars by the name of Elly Ogola.

Nyandoro said at the time Elly was signing the document he was not posted to be at the central registry where the files are kept and was at Homa Bay Land Registry.

“I also noted that at the time Elly was signing this document he was not posted to the Central Registry, he was at Homa Bay Land registry,” he stated.

A transfer from ADC to Wakanda and Omar while referring to the last page of the document he noted was said to have been registered on February 14, 1996 under entry IR 40236/149.

Nyandoro in his evidence before the court said the parcel file to the suit land is missing. He said that he had the parcel file for the original land before subdivisions took place. He also produced the extract of the original title.

The contents of the title as regards ownership of land 13287/99 (the suit land) he said was captured as entry number 85 in the mother title. The entry he said is a transfer to Joseph Kasaine Nkaiserry.

“The parcel is LR No. 13287/99 which contains by measurement 20.24 hectares which is roughly 50 acres. The certificate to this title was issued vide certificate no 5204 IR,” said Nyandoro.

The transfer of the land to Nkaiserry he said was done by Agricultural Development Corporation (ADC).

Nyandoro noted that he was shown a copy of another title filed in court and noticed that the bar codes appearing in their original title extract have the running numbers whereas the document filed in court had different serial numbers with different identifications.

He told the court that establishing the current registered proprietor can only be identified by looking at the title which contains the entries.

“When I compared the document that had been filed to the document that I have I noticed the bar codes were not the same. When a document has more than one page you put bar codes with running bar code numbers for that identification so that they fall within the same instrument,” he added.

He said each bar code on documents is serialized and unique as there are no two bar codes with the same serial number.