EACC intensifies efforts to recover grabbed public land in Mombasa

Mombasa,

Tuesday, November 21, 2023

KNA by Chari Suche

The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) has recovered high-value public properties grabbed by private developers and companies in Mombasa County.

The EACC CEO Twalib Mbarak said during a site visit to some of the properties that one of the active cases which they are following includes an eight-acre piece of land which belonged to Coast Water Development Authority.

Mbarak noted that the county is among those with serious land-grabbing challenges in Kenya adding that the Commission is now pursuing over 130 cases in court seeking to recover grabbed public properties worth approximately Sh10 billion within the Coast region.

“Mombasa County is among the leading counties in the cases of land grabbing in Kenya. The grabbed property includes prime parcels of land, road reserves, and government houses belonging to different public institutions,” added Mbarak.

He said the Commission has obtained orders from the Environment and Land Court in Mombasa stopping Gulf Energy, one of the sued companies from developments it was undertaking on the Coast Water government staff quarters grabbed from the Ministry of Water and its affiliate agencies in the Shanzu area adjacent to Shanzu Teachers Training College.

The Shanzu property is valued at Sh365 million and is part of a larger property in the area valued at Sh1.2 billion which the commission is targeting in the Shanzu area.

“On November 14, 2023, the court granted EACC orders prohibiting the defendants from any dealings on the property pending the hearing and determination of the case. The matter will be mentioned on December 7, 2023,” said Mbarak.

Apart from the litigation process, EACC is also engaging those who benefited from public land on Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) to recover the parcels of land.

This was revealed today when the CEO accompanied by Mombasa Governor Abdulswamad Nassir and other senior government officials undertook site visits to some of the high-value properties that the commission has recovered from the grabbers, in Mombasa County.

The Commission is also handling a number of cases including a land parcel belonging to Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) which was set aside for the expansion of the Moi International Airport worth Sh2.5 billion.

It has also completed recovery of a number of properties that have been returned to the public.

“These include, Hobley estate in the Buxton area belonging to the Ministry of Housing and has a current market value of Sh500 million, seven prime properties comprising six government houses belonging to the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority and one for the Ministry of Housing in Nyali/Bamburi estate cumulatively valued at Sh420 million,” said Mbarak.

The commission has sensitized members of the public to remain vigilant to avoid being duped into buying property grabbed from the public.

At the same time, public institutions, especially the county government, have been put to task to take care of public properties vested in them to avoid exposing it to grabbers.

Courtesy; KNA