Land Records of 60 Multi-Million Nairobi Houses Vanish at City Hall

Nairobi County’s Planning and Housing Committee was puzzled after learning that land records of 60 multimillion properties in Nairobi had disappeared from City Hall. 

County Chief Valuer Isaac Nyoike, while appearing before the committee on November 23, disclosed that City Hall officers could not trace the documents, including that of the Ksh80 million house destroyed in Westlands. 

Niraj Shah and his wife, Avan Shah, were forcefully evicted from the house. 

“There is a file containing land rates of 60 houses that disappeared in 2015 under mysterious circumstances,” Nyoike told the committee.

A file image of city hall

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“At the county lands office, we could not locate the records for the property that Shah owned and was demolished in Westlands.

Nyoike further claimed that the files went missing seven years ago, compounding the case for the couple of Asian descent. 

While probing Nyoike on how the documents remained untraceable for a long time, the committee was not satisfied with his unsatisfactory answers. 

Its chair Alvin Orlando demanded staff from the land office to furnish the committee with information or risk being fired.

“We shall be thorough in our investigations and we’ll work with the lands office to cooperate with us, else we’ll send most of them away,” he vowed.

City Hall officers were given an ultimatum on retrieving the documents, with the committee detailing that they had one week to reorganise the department. 

Meanwhile, former Nairobi governor, Mike Sonko, offered a Ksh100,000 reward for whistleblowers who will assist the police in tracking three directors of the company that evicted Shah’s family. 

Police charged the trio with robbery with violence, and destruction of property.  

“I’m offering the reward to anyone who will give information to the police that will lead to their arrest,” Sonko announced on Tuesday, November 22.

A collage of the demolished house in Westlands Nairobi

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