A senior lands official in Bondo is staring at imminent arrest after a dramatic escalation in a fast-growing land fraud scandal that now threatens to expose a wider network of corruption within Siaya’s land administration system.
Justice Alfred Mabeya, the powerful Chair of the National Council on the Administration of Justice (NCAJ), has ordered the Bondo Law Courts to summon Lands Registrar Ogise Atuti—or issue a warrant of arrest—after he allegedly defied six separate court orders and obstructed investigations into fraudulent land transactions.
According to complaints filed by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), Atuti repeatedly ignored directives to release certified documents used to generate suspect title deeds, frustrating detectives probing a scheme believed to involve rogue officials and unscrupulous surveyors.
Investigators say the withheld documents are critical evidence in ongoing criminal inquiries targeting a syndicate suspected of manipulating land ownership records to dispossess vulnerable families—especially in succession cases, a category Justice Mabeya has now ordered all courts in Siaya, Ukwala, Bondo, Siaya Town and Madiany to fast-track.
Justice Mabeya noted that succession matters have become fertile hunting grounds for corrupt surveyors and land officers who collude to produce fraudulent titles, fueling a pattern of land theft that has left countless families trapped in legal limbo.
Bondo DCIO Reuben Onchoka confirmed that detectives have been stalled for months, saying the registrar’s refusal to release the documents has crippled their ability to advance criminal probes.
With the court now tightening the noose, Atuti is expected to appear next week—failure to which police will move in to enforce his arrest. The unfolding saga is now raising deeper questions about entrenched impunity within Siaya’s land offices and the powerful networks shielding fraudulent land dealings.
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