By Anderson Ojwang
In Kisumu County, wonders never cease. A government department is reportedly paying rent for a public premise that was allegedly grabbed.
The Regional Director of the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) for the Central Nyanza region, Mr Abraham Kemboi, said a government premise in Milimani Estate in Kisumu was grabbed and later rented out to a government department.
“We will recover that parcel of land, including taking action against all the government officers who were involved in the fraudulent allocation.
We will also recover what we believe are the proceeds—the income you have earned from irregularly occupying that government property,” he said.
He added that the grabbing of public premises is common in the Milimani area, where individuals have taken over government houses and rented them back to the same government.
“Some commissions are being housed in premises and paying rent for what they should not be paying,” he said.
Kemboi said 40 percent of public land and properties in Kisumu have been grabbed, including land belonging to three police stations—Kasagam Police Station, Carwash Police Station, and Mamboleo Police Station.
“It cannot be that, as a private person, you have taken away a police station and want our police officers to be squeezed into a corner while you own the largest part of the police station.
Examples of police stations whose parcels of land have been grabbed are concentrated in Kisumu East Constituency. A police station in Kasagam, a police station in Carwash, and a police station in Mamboleo Showgrounds have most of their parcels of land grabbed,” he said.
He wondered how grabbers had acted with such impunity as to even acquire police station land.
“It is very interesting that people can be so daring that they want to take away police land and evict the police—our officers who guarantee our security. You want to feel so nice, you want to look like an entrepreneur—how can you be that enterprising when most of the time you focus on taking away what belongs to all of us?” he said.
Kemboi said 40 percent of public land in Kisumu has been grabbed and that efforts are underway to recover it.
“Generally, about 40 percent of public land that was earmarked for public use is actually in the wrong hands.
When I speak of public land, I refer to land that was earmarked for Kenya Railways, Kenya Prisons, public housing, land set aside for police stations, and other public utilities such as schools, roads, and health facilities. Most of these parcels are in the wrong hands,” he said.
Kisumu County was last year categorized among the six counties in the country considered hotspots for land theft.
He said the EACC was undertaking measures to return the grabbed public land to the government.
“As a commission, we have taken steps to ensure that these lands are returned to the public for the good use of all of us.
Many of the reports reaching my office, especially from Kisumu East Constituency where grabbing is rampant, indicate that we are moving in to recover most of those grabbed parcels of land,” he said.
He warned grabbers that they risk prosecution and forfeiture of investments made on grabbed public land.
“We want to warn these grabbers that you will be wasting your investments when you deploy your resources on a parcel of land that was traditionally and historically set aside for the good use of the people of Kenya,” he said.
Kemboi expressed optimism that most of the grabbed land will be recovered and reverted to the public for its intended purpose.
“You are wasting your investment. The law has been clarified in Kenya, and precedent has been set that whatever was set aside for public use will revert to its original and intended purpose. No one under the law has the authority to grab public land and make it their own,” he said.
