Kenyans warned against rogue auctioneers

Lawyer Paul Muite’s wife, Edith, surveys the damage caused by a gang of youth who recently raided their Nairobi home, claiming to be agents of auctioneers. Photo/FILE

Kenyans beware; the people hovering outside your compound or business premises ready to impound your property may not be agents of auctioneers, but criminals out to wreak havoc.

Industry regulators on Friday warned that gangs are on the loose, terrorising people as they masquerade as auctioneers intending to carry out lawful evictions.

The Auctioneers Licensing Board and the National Association of Kenya Auctioneers announced that a major crackdown had been launched countrywide to weed out rogue auctioneers following harrowing tales of thuggery on homeowners by gangs purportedly acting on their orders.

It has also emerged that people who raided a home in Kiserian last month and left its businessman owner dead were not acting on instructions from a licensed auctioneer, but criminals.

80 complaints

Confirming that cases of gangsters storming homes and businesses, purporting to be acting on instructions from auctioneers are on the rise, the Auctioneers Licensing Board announced that it had received more than 80 complaints from the public about rogue auctioneers and cancelled the licences of two auctioneers.

Several other auctioneers, the board revealed, had paid fines of up to Sh100,000 for various offences over the past year. The board, at the same time, confirmed that the people who raided the Kiserian home and the ones that attacked former Kabete MP Paul Muite’s home last year were not licensed auctioneers.

“Both the board and the national association are on top of these two cases, the ones involving Hon Muite and Mr Karanja,” said Mr Onyango Josiah, the chairman of the National Association of Kenya Auctioneers and Auctioneers Licensing Board member.

“Section 2(d) of the Auctioneers Act is very clear that one must obtain a court order to carry out an eviction. In these two cases, we have tried to narrow it down to any auctioneer who may have obtained a court order to carry out the evictions but failed.

“It only means that those who staged the two raids are not licensed auctioneers. If we manage to zero in on any auctioneer, then action will be taken against such an auctioneer.”

Despite the widespread crime against Kenyans by purported auctioneers, the board said it had received only about 80 complaints in the past year. This, according to Mr Onyango, shows that many Kenyans may not know of the board’s existence or its mandate which, among other things, is to listen to complaints from the public and discipline errant auctioneers.

“The cases before the board have not been extreme,” he pointed out. “But yes, over the last year, the board has managed to revoke the licences of two auctioneers; this is because we handle only about 80 cases in a year, either because the public does not know that such a board exists.”

Last month, the Nation received the shocking news that a 60-year-old, Kiserian-based businessman had died when a gang believed to have been hired by an auctioneer raided his home. Mr Joseph Karanja Mbugua was reported to have collapsed and died when he arrived at Sinai Hospital, where he had been taken by his wife Margaret and neighbours.

“We have received a report that a businessman died when a group of people, acting on instructions from an auctioneer, went to a house to evict the family. The family is alleging that he was hit with something,” the Rongai police division deputy commandant, Mr Muchangi Kioi, was quoted as saying.

Four mobile phones

The gangsters had broken into Mr Mbugua’s home at Ololoitikosh, robbed him and his wife of four mobile phones, an unknown amount of money and household goods, which they loaded onto a lorry and drove off.

This happened although the couple had obtained a court injunction against the auctioning of their house after they established that a buyer had started paying for it well before the auction happened in November.

According to lawyer Muite, it is illegal for auctioneers to hire goons to evict one from one’s property,” adds Mr Muite. “Licensed auctioneers do not have the authority in law to carry out an eviction. It is a criminal offence for a purported auctioneer to hire goons, raid one’s property and damage property in the name of evicting one,” says the lawyer, himself a victim of such harrowing treatment at the hands of gangs. “Only a court bailiff has authority from court to effect an eviction, according to the law.

When a licensed bailiff obtains such eviction orders from a court of law, the bailiff may seek help from police, and not goons to carry out the eviction,” Mr Muite adds. “In the event that the subject of the eviction order refuses to heed such orders, the law requires the court bailiff to go back to court and press contempt of court charges against the subject — no court gives a bailiff orders to forcefully evict one from a premises.”

Kisumu-based auctioneer George Arunga Sino agrees with Mr Muite. “There is no provision in the Act for an auctioneer to exhibit thuggery in the conduct of his or her operations,” he says. “If you suspect that there are security issues or resistance, the law stipulates that you make an application to a court of law to obtain security; there is no law that empowers an auctioneer to recruit thugs.”

He urges the public to seek redress from the board whenever they feel aggrieved by the actions of some rogue auctioneers. “We have an auctioneers Act which guides and regulates our operations as auctioneers,” he says. “Any aggrieved party may lodge a complaint against any rogue auctioneer to the board, and deterrent action will be taken against the culprit if found guilty.”

Mr Muite feels that the penalties against errant auctioneers, as stipulated in the Auctioneers Act — of upto Sh100,000 — are too lenient to deter rogue auctioneers from their barbaric tendencies. “The Sh100,000 fine imposed on an errant auctioneer is inadequate in my opinion; at the very least, the board ought to revoke the licence of auctioneers found guilty,” he argues.

His views are shared by Mr James Mwamu, the vice-chairman of the Law Society of Kenya, which is represented on the Auctioneers Licensing Board by an advocate.