SWAZURI: All titles to grabbed Lamu, State House land to be revoked

Swazuri confirmed land belonging to State Houses and Lodges had been hived off in Mombasa, Cherangani and Eldoret/PSCU

In a meeting with President Uhuru Kenyatta, Swazuri confirmed land belonging to State Houses and Lodges had been hived off in Mombasa, Cherangani and Eldoret.

“It will be recalled that subsequently, the National Land Commission itself, while investigating allocations of public land in the past, uncovered the hiving off and allocation of land belonging to State Houses and/or State Lodges across the country,” Swazuri said.

“Preliminary investigations by the Commission have established that parts of State Houses and, or Lodges have been hived off and sold illegally to individual entities and companies,” he announced.

The commission has also discovered attempts to encroach some other state properties in Kisumu, Nakuru and Kakamega.

Investigations are also underway on Rumuruti, Sagana and Mito Andei properties. “The good news is that the three lodges are intact.”

On the 500,000 acres in Lamu, Swazuri confirmed that the land was indeed irregularly and illegally allocated to the 22 firms and will from Monday next week start revoking the title deeds.

“Our preliminary investigations confirmed that the land in question was irregularly and illegally allocated. The Commission will move to Lamu on Monday to establish the situation on the ground. Thereafter, the Commission will issue a revocation order in respect of the titles in a week’s time,” the chairman said.

Last month the head of state ordered the commission to repossess the 500,000 acres of land blaming the land issue as the main cause of chaos in the county which saw close to 100 people killed and many others maimed and left homeless.

Swazuri said his commission will be issuing the full report in a weeks’ time.

Meanwhile the commission touched on the Standard Gauge Railway project which is said to be on the right track.

“We were delighted to report that Inspection and acquisition of land, resettlement plan, valuation, and compensation plan have been completed.”

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MARGARET WAHITO

Margaret has been a business reporter for the past four years. She holds a Bachelors of Science degree in Communications and Public Relations from Moi University. She also holds a diploma in Film and Video production from the Kenya institute of Mass Communications. Apart from journalism, she has interest in community work, especially helping the disadvantaged.

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