Is there a conspiracy sanctioned by crooked officials in top levels of the government to flood areas in the Mt Kenya region with illegal immigrants?
Local politicians strongly believe so, even as government officials dismissed the claims as idle talk.
At the centre of the controversy is the alleged issuance of national identity cards to illegal aliens from neighbouring countries, who then flood towns in the Mt Kenya region, buying properties with “dirty money.”
Kiambu County is the worst hit.
Ruiru Small Importers and Traders Association chairperson Anne Wanjiru accused the immigrants of distorting the property market.
“When they target a building, all the existing tenants are kicked out,” she said.
Juja Member of Parliament George Koimburi accused some national government administration officers of “writing introductory letters to aliens describing them as Kenyans to be issued with national identity cards”.
“We must protect our people and country against such infiltration. This criminality must stop,” the lawmaker said.
Juja Town Ward Rep Jeremiah Kiama said illegal immigrants arrive first as tenants and then end up buying apartment buildings.
“They stay for some time as their agents arrange for their registration as Kenyans. I want to warn all the brokers involved in sneaking them into Juja and facilitating their registration as citizens that their days are numbered. Our towns will not be turned into human trafficking havens,” Mr Kiama said.
Denying the claims, Juja Deputy County Commissioner Charles Mureithi said“no foreigner has been issued with a Kenyan identity card”.
He said vetting of ID applicants “happens in my office and the process is above board”. But some of the police officers who spoke to Nation said many illegal immigrants have been issued Kenyan identity cards.
“We are the ones who conduct raids. We encounter scores of illegal immigrants with Kenyan IDs,” said an officer in Nyeri County. Former Nairobi Provincial Commissioner Joseph Kaguthi said young people in Mt Kenya “were selling their birthrights” due to alcoholism.
“We have these sons who are busy selling their ancestral lands for no other reason than to raise money for buying alcohol. Soon, Mt Kenya shall not be known as Gikuyu, Embu and Meru Association, it will be something else,” he warned.
Embakasi Ranching Company Limited Chairman John Njoroge said “what we are facing in this real estate takeover is the result of an unholy alliance between government officials and human traffickers”.
He said government officials provide illegal immigrants with market intelligence on properties that can be bought and regularise the transactions.
“The cartels are deeply embedded even in security offices where, in every Mt Kenya county, there are representatives of the illegal immigrants, some with connections in the Arab world and Asia,” he said.
Mr Njoroge said the immigrants, aided by powerful local partners, are behind the chaos in the property market “where you can be dispossessed, murdered or bogged down in endless and vexatious lawsuits.”
Between January 25 and February 3 last year, a total of 19 illegal immigrants from neighbouring countries were arrested between Makutano and Kenol in Murang’a County, two among them soldiers. One died after the car he was driving overturned during a police chase.
Mr Njoroge urged Mt Kenya leaders to be vigilant and undertake property audits to reverse the illegal transactions.
“A deal by an illegal alien is not binding. We should also question the source of the cash that is being pumped into the Mt Kenya property market. We should also be wary of government officials who come to work in our regions with the sole objective of helping us sell our souls and identity. We must protect our heritage by holding on to our lands for future generations,” he said.
