Kirinyaga Central Member of Parliament (MP) Gachoki Gitari has initiated a petition aimed at weeding out fake land buying companies conning Kenyans.
While appearing before the National Assembly Department on Lands on June 4, Gitari defended his legislative proposal, dubbed The Land (Amendment) Bill 2024, stating that fraudulent cases have been on the rise.
Gitari argued that there was need to enhance the existing legal mechanisms to rescue Kenyans from unscrupulous conmen and middlemen involved in the fake land dealings and whose operations have left many families destitute and thousands of hardworking Kenyans in misery as culprits go scot-free.
“The principal object of the legislative proposal is to amend the Land Act, 2012 to provide for registration, licensing and regulation of land dealing entities in order to protect the interests of persons buying land from such companies,” he said.
“The bill aims to ensure that all the entities dealing in land are regulated and set a minimum fee for license registration and land dealing entities and impose land penalties for non-compliance.”
Petition to Regulate Land-buying Companies
If the Bill is passed, land buying companies will be compelled to deposit Ksh500 million as license fees before they are cleared for registration.
Other MPs who spoke on the petition said it was a progressive step in the quest to sanitize the land sector.
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Currently, there is no law that regulates the activities of land buying companies that have seen investors lose billions of shillings to shadowy entities.
The new bill is also seeking to protect the interests of buyers who have ended up being conned after purchasing land either without title deeds or those allocated to more than one person.
It also seeks to establish an agency that would regulate the proliferation and activities of all land-buying companies in Kenya.
Furthermore, the Bill empowers the regulator to impose penalties of up to Ksh5 million for non-compliance by the land-buying companies.
About the New Land Bill
Also, under the new law an agency that would regulate the proliferation and activities of all land-buying companies will be established.
“The Bill provides for payment of a registration fee by each land dealing company which will be prescribed by the Cabinet Secretary responsible for Land and renewed every year,” Gitari said.
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The Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) had earlier said that the implementation of the bill will cost the national governments approximately Ksh9.5 million in the first year, Ksh9.4 million in the second year and Ksh9.25 million in the third year.
The petition comes after many Kenyans have complained of being swindled by fraudsters posing as land investment companies.
Many of them have lost their money through unregulated investment companies that operate real estate businesses that sell the property as off-plan.
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