The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) has begun legal proceedings to recover 7.6 acres of land in Kisumu that it says was illegally excised from property belonging to the Kenya Prisons Service.
The land, in Milimani, is currently occupied by private developments and is estimated to be worth about KSh790 million, excluding buildings.
The EACC says its value rises to about Sh4.3 billion when the developments are included.
Speaking in Kisumu, EACC Chief Executive Officer Abdi Mohamud said the disputed land formed part of a 16-acre parcel reserved for the Kenya Prisons Service for staff housing and regional offices.
He said the recovery action followed a petition by the Kenya Prisons Service.
According to Mohamud, the land was initially earmarked for the establishment of an educational institution, but that plan was later abandoned.
He alleged that the land was subsequently diverted for private residential development.
The EACC says the land was subdivided into 92 plots and transferred to private individuals.
The area is now fully developed and is commonly known as Winam Estate, also referred to as Grace Ogot Estate.
The commission has asked the Environment and Land Court to cancel all titles issued for the land, declare the transactions that led to the transfers illegal, fraudulent and void, and restore the property to the Kenya Prisons Service.
Mohamud said the commission had filed nine asset recovery cases before the Environment and Land Court in Kisumu as part of the first phase of the recovery process.
He said the case reflected what he described as a wider pattern of public land reserved for government use being transferred into private ownership through abuse of office, fraudulent documentation and manipulation of land allocation processes.
“The people who acquired public land will ultimately lose those assets,” Mohamud said.
He added that the disputed land had originally been set aside for the construction of regional prison headquarters and staff housing.
Mohamud said the EACC had previously recovered public land belonging to the Kenya Railways Corporation, county governments and other state agencies.
Also present during the visit were the Commissioner General of the Kenya Prisons Service, Peter Aranduh, Kisumu County Commissioner Mohamed Mwabudzo, and Kisumu County Executive Committee Member for Lands Onyango Konyango.
Mwabudzo urged members of the public to carry out due diligence before purchasing land to avoid acquiring property that may be subject to legal disputes.
Leave a comment