Man stripped of Nakuru property sold by impersonator of dead owner
Rift Valley
By
Julius Chepkwony
| Jan 14, 2026
For more than a decade, Jamlick Muriuki Ngaari believed he had finally secured a piece of land in Nakuru’s fast-growing Naka area.
He paid for it, cleared rates, fenced it, and even put up a perimeter wall. In a judgment delivered last week, the Environment and Land Court ruled that the man who sold him the land in 2010 was not the real owner but an impostor impersonating someone who had already died.
Justice Millicent A Odeny dismissed Ngaari’s suit and upheld the title held by the estate of the late Martha Kabon Chebii, effectively stripping him of Nakuru Municipality Block 23/304 and marking the end of a long-running dispute to a bitter end.
The case read like a cautionary tale about Kenya’s land market, where forged documents, impostors, and overlapping titles often leave ordinary buyers devastated.
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Ngaari told the court that in October 2010, while searching for land, he was introduced by a land agent known as Mwangi to a man who identified himself as Charles Changwony Chebii. The man claimed to own a plot in Naka and produced documents to prove it. Ngaari claimed he carried out checks at the municipal council and the lands office and was satisfied enough to proceed.
On January 3, 2010, the two signed a sale agreement at the offices of advocate Aggrey Simiyu. The agreed price was Sh800, 000. Ngaari testified that he paid most of it in cash and used part of the balance to clear land rates, transfer fees, and other outgoings. He later obtained what he believed was a valid certificate of lease issued in December 2012.
For years, he paid rates and even received approval from the county to put up a boundary wall.
The trouble began in 2016 when he misplaced the original title deed and applied for a replacement. A routine search stunned him: the land was now registered in the name of Martha Kabon Chebii, deceased. He rushed to court, accusing the family and the Land Registrar of fraud and demanding that his title be restored.
But the defence told a very different story.
Henry Chebii, a retired DCI officer and son of the late Charles Chebii, testified that his father died on July 16, 2008, two years before the alleged sale. According to him, the land formed part of his father’s estate and was lawfully transmitted to his mother, Martha Kabon Chebii, through a succession cause. She was issued a title in February 2013.
The court then heard damning evidence from the National Registration Bureau. A senior registration officer testified that the identity card used in the sale documents did not belong to the real Charles Chebii. The serial number on the photocopied ID matched records of a completely different person. Even the date and place of birth were wrong.
Further cracks appeared in Ngaari’s case. The acreage on his alleged title did not match the official size of the land. The green card, the official land register, had no entry showing Ngaari was ever registered as owner. The judge also noted that the advocate who allegedly witnessed the sale and transfer was never called to testify.
In a key finding, the court concluded that Ngaari had most likely dealt with an impostor who assumed the identity of the late Chebii. The judge stressed that courts cannot sanitise a tainted title.
Ngaari’s case collapsed. His suit was dismissed with costs, leaving him without the land he believed he owned and without compensation.