EACC recovers grabbed public land worth over Ksh.300M in Kisumu

The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) has recovered six parcels of public land worth over Ksh.300 million in Kisumu City grabbed by private developers in collusion with land officials.

The said public property includes 3.2 acres belonging to Kenya Railways Corporation (including a road reserve) cumulatively worth Ksh.180 million, 7 acres belonging to Victoria Primary School worth Ksh.100 million, and a house worth Ksh.20 million belonging to the Ministry of Housing in Kisumu’s Milimani area.

EACC Spokesperson Eric Ngumbi confirmed the recovery after a site visit saying the grabbers forged land ownership documents and proceeded to court seeking orders to evict the bonafide public institutions.

Consequently, in separate judgments by the Environment and Land Court sitting in Kisumu, the court concurred with the findings of EACC and declared the resultant titles held by the private developers as illegal, invalid, null and void.

The court also issued orders directing the Land Registrar Kisumu to rectify the Register for the said parcels by canceling the registration of the illegal owners and restoring the property to the rightful owners.

The anti-corruption body has since flagged Kisumu as one of the counties with many cases of public land grabbing, noting that so far it has filed recovery suits amounting to Ksh.10 billion.

 “Currently, the Commission has filed multiple recovery suits for prime properties grabbed from various public institutions before the Kisumu Land and Environmental Court with a cumulative market value of over Ksh.10 billion. Hearing of the cases is ongoing,” Ngumbi stated.

Some of the high-value recoveries include the 18-acre Kibuye Market valued at Ksh.2 billion, 20-acre land in Milimani meant for construction of Regional Prisons Staff Quarters and Offices, road reserves which have been converted into petrol stations and car selling yards, and Kisumu Mamboleo land reserved for Industrial Park.

Others are the Nyalenda Kenya Railways land, fraudulently sold by a Law Firm that pocketed the proceeds, without any reference to Kenya Railways Corporation and Kenya Railways land which had been legally leased to Aga Khan University Hospital in Kisumu, but is now being claimed by grabbers who have filed a civil suit seeking orders to evict the iconic hospital,

Similarly, EACC is seeking to recover grabbed Government houses meant for civil servants and other land meant for the expansion of the Kisumu Water Treatment Plant and construction of County Assembly Offices.

In line with its mandate, the Commission urges all persons holding titles to grab government property across the country to consider voluntarily surrendering the same to the Commission to avert lengthy court processes and fines.