How fake papers bail out suspects

Milimani Law Courts in Nairobi.

Rising cases of fraudsters using fake documents to secure bonds has rattled the Judiciary.

The Judiciary has discovered that a number of accused persons released on bond using fake documents such as logbooks, title deeds and share certificates have absconded court and cannot be traced.

The Judiciary’s Bail and Bond Implementation Committee (BBIC) is proposing strict monitoring of court registries countrywide to tame the fraud.

So connected are the “bond cartels” that they freely roam court corridors listening to cases and offering surety services to accused persons charged with offences such as drug trafficking and murder. Anyone who dares expose them is threatened with death or dire consequences.

In the latest case, police cannot trace an accused who obtained millions of shillings from a foreigner in the pretext of selling gold to him. The suspect who used a forged title deed has absconded court.

In another case, investigations have established that a title deed for a five-acre prime property in Nanyuki is under scrutiny after a copy of the same was used to stand surety in a court case. In one such cases, David Kinuthia Kariuki moved to the High Court under a judicial review to seek orders stopping the Kibera court from prosecuting him for allegedly standing surety for a suspect who absconded. Kariuki had been charged with presenting a forged title deed to stand surety for Richard Wairi Gitau who jumped bail.

Prime land

Kariuki was not aware that the title deed for his prime land in Lower Kabete had been used to secure a bond until police came looking for him.

But when Kariuki presented his original title deed, police locked him up. He denies standing surety for a man he says he does not know. Police say they confirmed the title deed was fake. Peter Kihiu, a retired lands registrar purported to have signed the title deed, denied ever signing the documents presented to Ongata Rongai police by Kariuki.

Late last year, Ethics and Anti-Corruption (EACC) detectives busted a fake title deed syndicate in Kajiado County and arrested two suspects with hundreds of fakeland ownership documents.

And five years ago, a Mavoko court issued a warrant of arrest for then Kajiado County Land Registrar Jonathan Koskei for suspected involvement in issuance of fake title deeds used by fraudsters in bail and bond surety.

There is no comprehensive data available on the scope of the problem. The Judiciary confirms that there is no uniform procedure for the approval of sureties and courts follow different procedures. “However, some particular inmates have expressed sentiments against the use of police officers in the verification process, citing lack of objectivity by the officers who have also been accused of abusing the process,” says BBIC chair Justice Jessie Lesitt.

While the judiciary accepts there are challenges in ensuring bail and bond processes are fool proof, absconding by an accused person is a major problem, especially when warrants of arrest cannot be effected nor the sureties traced. “Courts are as a result holding valueless security documents and are left with pending warrants of arrest,” says Lesitt.

Due to the rampant cases of questionable authenticity of security/surety documents, some courts are now opting for more reliable documents such as payslips.

The BBIC has consequently introduced policy interventions, including an audit of all cases with pending warrants of arrest and security documents in the custody of courts, introducing a requirement that deposit of a security document such as a land title in court be registered against the title in the lands registry.

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