Police arrest 3 over dubious land sale in Lilongwe

Malawi Police in Lilongwe have arrested three people for allegedly selling other other people’s land without consent.

Lilongwe police deputy spokesperson Foster Benjamin said Blessings Chiipire, Frank Kachitseko and Manase  Chipala sold land which belonged to other people in Kaphiri, Six Miles and Bypass road in Lilongwe collecting K7.1 million in the process.

“They sold the land to three different people who later discovered that they were duped and reported the matter to Chitsime police,” said Benjamin.

Benjamin said one of the suspects posed as an estate agent, another one as a chief and another as an official from the ministry of Lands.

He said Kachitseko was dethroned as a chief in the area long ago because of the same dubious land transactions.

Benjamin also said that the three were on court bail on another land case when they were rearrested on the fresh charges.

Published reports show that some unscrupulous individuals, masquerading as estate agents, have taken advantage of the desperation for accommodation to dupe unsuspecting Malawians looking for houses and pieces of land in cities and towns.

Meanwhile, chairperson for the Association of Real Estates Agents (Area) in Malaw, Ken Msonda, has challenged that they have gone flat out on the ground to bring back sanity in the field.

Their role among others according to Msonda is to report crooked individuals guised as middlemen involved in daylight robbery to relevant authorities and also discipline some of their own members implicated in incidents of trickery.

“We warn the general public through various mediums to be on the lookout, avoid dealing with non-members of the association to avoid being dubbed, robed or cheated. Unfortunately the general public is sometimes to blame because of using short-cuts when desperately in need of a property to rent or buy,” Msonda said in quotes reported by Times daily newspaper.

Asked on how one qualifies to be a real estate agent Msonda said one has to go through training at institutions like the Polytechnic in Blantyre at the faculty of Built Environment.

Section 8 of the Land Economy Act outlines that no person is eligible for registration as an estate agent unless he either has attained the age of 22 years, has passed a qualifying examination approved by the Board of Registration and has not less than two years post qualification practical experience or articled  pupillage in the work of an estate agent.