A Kenyan Diaspora woman goes to Kenya, buys land and pays $81,300.81 (Ksh.10,500,000/=). Unfortunately, she does not come back for the Title Deed and the honest land seller spends more than one year looking for her. This is a remarkable story of restitution and goodwill, one which will inspire your heart.
Honest land seller looks for Title Deed owner
In an industry that is known for endless scandalous and fake land transactions, this story will warm your heart and restore your confidence that good people still exist in Kenya.
The story goes back to January 2018 when Mr. Peter Gitau, Managing Director of Peter’s
Plots, a land buying and selling company received a client who wanted to buy three acres of land in Isinya area of Kajiado County. The client’s name was Anne Gicheru a Kenyan based in Texas, USA.
“It was just another sale, nothing out of the ordinary until we were suddenly unable to reach Anne on the phone number she was using while in Kenya” says Mr. Gitau. Anne had made a total payment of (Ksh.10,500,000/=) Kenya shillings ten million five hundred thousand being the full price of the land and signed the sale agreement, the land board
consent application form and the transfer form.
She had also provided her passport photos and a copy of her National Identity card. There was only one document she didn’t have – a copy of her KRA pin. This document forms part of the completion documents needed when transferring land to a purchaser.
“It was understandable that she didn’t have her KRA pin as most Kenyans in the Diaspora having lived there for long have not applied for their KRA Pin but usually it’s something that’s done online and quite easy to get” say’s Mr. Gitau.
The agreement he had with Anne was she could send him the PIN at earliest opportunity she got to log on to KRA website and apply. “I never heard from her again and her Kenyan phone number wentanswered.
Initially I thought she was busy with personal errands as Diaspora clients can be quite busy with matters also to do with relatives when they come here and their time is usually not long”. With days turning to weeks and to months without hearing from Anne, it was now August 2022 that Mr. Gitau knew something must have happened to Anne.
It’s not normal that a client will pay such a big amount of money to buy property then just disappear. The property had also not been transferred to Anne’s name making it potentially risky and leaving it open that the land could be sold or transferred to someone else. Mr. Gitau decided to conduct his own investigation to try and find out what had happened to Anne.
The investigation would take him six months of phone calls and emails to his Kenyan diaspora clients and friends who live in USA and particularly those in Texas.
He deliberately avoided trying to find Anne’s relatives in Kenya as she had not come to his office accompanied by any relative and he feared creating a potential family feud if he revealed to any relative the amount of money Anne had paid to his firm. He was also not sure off the relationship Anne had with her relatives.
The investigation started with a small detail that Peter remembered while visiting the land at Isinya with Anne two days before she made her payment. She had mentioned she owned a plot in Section 58 in Nakuru and would visit to see the plot before she flew back to the US.
This unlikely little detail was the link that would eventually open a window to solving the mystery. In his many messages to his clients and friends in the US, Peter included this detail as a possible hint that whoever knew Anne, would probably know her because she
had mentioned having owned a plot in Nakuru.
After almost a month of fruitless search and very frustrating dead ends, Peter got lucky. An old client who had bought his land in Kenya in 2020 and lived in Texas told Peter that he knew of a lady who lived in Texas and had been to Kenya around 2018 and had been involved in a road accident in Naivasha.
She had received some medical attention in Kenya and had returned to the US and it was said she never quite fully recovered from her injuries and was left partially paralysed. The person who gave this information to Peter did not want to be quoted on its reliability or to be named as a source but he also provided a location in Dallas, Texas where he thought Anne lived.
The next few days were a roller coaster of emotions. “I immediately knew that was Anne!”,
Peter says. “It was starting to make sense”. Peter also knew a friend who lived in Dallas. He was sure that he was getting close to finding Anne because Kenyans in Dallas organize many social meetings and it would not be long before Anne was found.
The big break came on a phone call to Peter from his friend Martin Omwenga who had lived
in Dallas in 2019 but had moved to California. His message was short and direct. “There’s a lady called Anne who is unfortunately partially paralysed and lives with her daughter in
Dallas”. Martin had a phone number to a lady called Muthoni – Anne’s daughter. Peter decided he would call immediately.
The call went to voicemail and Peter left a message be called back. The waiting felt like it lasted forever but after three hours, Muthoni called. The search was over. Muthoni could not believe the information she was getting from Peter. It turned out the mother had not
mentioned that she would be buying land when she visited Kenya and had returned to the US in a very bad medical state that she couldn’t talk coherently for almost a month since she was under treatment then partial stroke followed.
Muthoni could also not find a copy of the sale agreement that her mother had signed even though her personal documents including copies of her passport and Kenyan ID were available. Muthoni was also able to organize a video call with Peter a few days later and Peter was shocked and very emotional to see Anne after four years of wondering what
happened to her.
Even though Anne looked quite sickly, she did manage a slight smile at seeing Peter on the other end. She had a total memory loss on the land transaction but with the help of Muthoni, she was able to obtain her KRA pin and the land was transferred to her and the Title Deed sent to Anne.
Today Muthoni and Peter talk regularly and the land at Isinya has grown in value. Peter continues to sell land to many Kenyans from his office at The Ngong Hills Hotel Building in Ngong road, Nairobi and his motto on his website www.petersplots.co.ke summaries his business in one line: Kenya’s most trusted land seller.
