NAIROBI, Kenya, Dec 11 – The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) has, in the last two months, recovered stolen public property valued at Sh300 million in the lakeside city of Kisumu.
EACC spokesperson Erick Ngumbi says the recovery of the illegally acquired property was done after a win in the court of law.
Ngumbi says the property includes land belonging to Kenya Railways Corporation, next to Huduma Centre, also attached to a road reserve belonging to the Ministry of Transport, land belonging to Victoria Primary School, and a government house.
“The Kenya Railways land and the road reserve is valued at Sh. 180 million, the school land is Sh. 100 million while the government house is costing Sh. 20 million,” he said.
Ngumbi says Victoria Primary School, a public school, lost 15 hectares of land to fraudsters, and the commission has managed to revert back 7 hectares of land back to the school.
“We are still in court to recover the remaining 8 hectares. The school management through fictitious minutes managed to dispose of a government property,” he said.
He says Kisumu is among two other counties where land grabbing is rampant but assured the public that the Commission is working round the clock to recover all the stolen property.
Addressing the press in Kisumu at the Kenya Railways Corporation land, which has been reverted, Ngumbi told land grabbers to be aware of the laws and comply with investigators.
He announced that in Kisumu, there are active cases in court to get back grabbed land and other government property valued at Sh. 10 billion.
Ngumbi says the process is keen to get back part of Kibuye market land that was grabbed alongside land belonging to Kenya Prison Services that was meant for the construction of prison staff houses.
“The land for the prison was grabbed and sold to various individuals, some of whom are very prominent people in the government,” he said.
Further, he says land that was reserved for industrial park establishment in the Mamboleo area was also grabbed, and the commission has since seized up the matter for litigation.
