By Anderson Ojwang
Panic and shock has descended at Kisumu’s upmarket estate, commonly known as Grace Ogot Estate, after the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) commenced civil proceedings to recover 7.6 acres currently valued at Sh790 million.
Similarly, the estate on Kenya Prisons land is worth Sh4.3 billion and is one of the most sought-after residential estates in Kisumu city.
The Commission’s Chief Executive Officer, Mr Abdi A. Mohamud, said the disputed land was allegedly illegally excised from land belonging to the Kenya Prisons Service and converted into private ownership.
“The disputed land, currently valued at approximately KES 790 million excluding developments and an estimated KES 4.3 billion including developments, forms part of an original 16-acre parcel that had been reserved for the Kenya Prisons Service for staff housing and regional offices,” he said in a press statement.
He said the recovery action followed a petition lodged by the Kenya Prisons Service in February 2022 requesting investigations into the unlawful occupation, subdivision, and alienation of its land in Kisumu.
“Investigations established that the land was originally reserved for prison use under colonial-era planning instruments in the 1960s and was subsequently reaffirmed through Government development plans in the 1970s as public land designated for prison infrastructure,” he said.
He said the Commission established that the Kenya Prisons Service had developed staff housing on the property before the alleged encroachment and subdivision occurred.
The CEO said further investigations revealed that in or around 1989, the then Assistant Minister for Home Affairs and Heritage, allegedly acting in concert with other public officials, irregularly acquired approximately 7.6 acres of the land through fraudulent and unlawful processes.
“The alleged acquisition was facilitated through forged and irregular documentation, including a fake allotment letter and altered development plans,” he said.
Abdi said although the land was initially associated with the establishment of an educational institution, the intended public purpose was later abandoned, and the land was instead redirected for private residential development.
“Subsequently, the land was subdivided into 92 parcels 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,” he said.
He said the Commission has moved to court seeking cancellation of all resultant titles and declarations that the entire chain of transactions was illegal, fraudulent, null and void.
“We are seeking restoration of the land to the Kenya Prisons Service,” he said.
The CEO said as part of the first phase of the recovery process, the Commission has filed nine asset recovery suits before the Environment and Land Court in Kisumu targeting parcels within the disputed 7.6-acre portion.
“The Commission notes that this matter reflects a broader pattern in which public land reserved for essential Government functions has been unlawfully diverted into private ownership through abuse of office, fraudulent documentation, and manipulation of land allocation processes,” he said.
EACC reiterated that public land was being held in trust for the people of Kenya and must only be allocated and utilised in strict compliance with the Constitution and applicable land laws.
Regional Director of the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) Central Nyanza region, Mr Abraham Kemboi, in a recent interview said some of the estates in the Milimani area have been constructed on public land.
He named the estates as Block 12 in Milimani area, which the Commission intends to recover.
Kemboi said they will also recover Block 9, where real estate investors and developers have built multi-million properties worth of value.
He said unscrupulous people grabbed the public land and sold it to innocent and unsuspecting Kenyans, who subsequently developed the parcels of land.
“Some estates in Milimani area such as Block 12 were grabbed, and we intend to recover the same. We are also looking at Block 9, which is historically Kenya Prisons’ parcel of land. Some unscrupulous Kenyans took away the land which belonged to the Prisons and sold it to unsuspecting Kenyans,” he said.
He said in Milimani, several government houses have been grabbed, with some rented to various government departments, to which they pay rent.
“We will recover that parcel of land, including taking action against all the government officers who were involved in the fraudulent allocation. We will recover what we think is the proceeds – the income that you have earned from irregularly occupying that government property,” he said.
He said the grabbing of public premises was common in Milimani area, where people have taken 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.
He said 40 percent of public land and properties in Kisumu have been grabbed, with three police lands – Kasagam Police Station, Carwash Police Station, and Mamboleo Police Station – having been grabbed.
“It cannot be that as a private person you have taken away a police station and you want our police officers to be squeezed in a corner while you, as a private person, own the largest part of the police station. Examples of such 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 Showground have most of their parcels of land grabbed,” he said.
He wondered how grabbers have been acting with impunity to even acquire a police station.
“It is very interesting that people can be so daring that they want to take away a police station and want to 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 us?” he said.
Kemboi said 40 percent of public land in Kisumu has been grabbed, and they are working 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 speak of land which was earmarked for Kenya Railways, Kenya Prisons, housing locally, land which was earmarked for police stations, and other public utilities such as schools, roads, and health facilities. Do you know most of these parcels are in wrong hands?” he said.
Kisumu County was last year categorised as one of the six counties in the country identified as hotspots for land theft.
He said the EACC was undertaking measures to return the grabbed public land back to the government.
“As a Commission, we have taken steps to ensure that these lands are returned back to the public for the good use of all of us. Much of those reports reaching my office, and especially in Kisumu East Constituency where grabbing is rampant, we are moving in to recover most of those grabbed parcels of land,” he said.
He warned the grabbers that they risk prosecution and forfeiture of their investments on the 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, currently, precedent has been set that whatever was set aside for good use for the public will revert to its original and intended use. No one under the law has the authority to grab public land and make it their own,” he said.
