DENIS NOEL MUKHULO OCHWADA & PATRICK W. OBONYO AGUTU V. ELIZABETH MURUNGARI NJOROGE & LILIAN WAIRIMU NGATHO

JUDGMENT OF THE COURT

This is yet another of those cases involving shameless and egregious fraud at the Ministry of Lands. In the not too uncommon practice, a total stranger obtains false duplicate documents of title to a property duly registered in the name of a citizen. While the genuine owner of the property has his documents of title ensconced in a safe or in some financial institution’s strong room, the stranger, mostly with the collusion of Ministry of Lands’ officials, surreptitiously and fraudulently transfers the property to another person, who may or may not be party to the fraud. That party subsequently sells and transfers the property to a third party who, more often than not, has no notice of the fraud that resulted in the transfer of the land to him.

Whatever the ultimate result of the judgment in such a dispute, along the chain an innocent party ends up suffering losses and prejudice. At the centre of Torrens land registration system, on which ours is based, is the basic …