More than 60 parcels of national and county government land worth more Sh1 billion in Nyeri town alone are in the hands of grabbers.
Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission Central regional manager Abraham Kemboi said Monday that the agency is investigating the parcels with a view of reverting them back to government.
Some 30 cases relating to the said parcels of lands have been filed in Nyeri’s lands court, he said.
Kemboi said most of the land is grabbed from what was reserved for government houses.
The lands lie in areas where land has high value such as Ring Road estate and some lands neighbouring senior government officials such as the former provincial commissioner and district commissioner residences.
Some of those being investigated are churches that have built their churches in the said parcels of land, he said.
“We are interested in recovering those parcels of land. If you like, the conservative value of what we are trying to recover is well over a billion shillings,” he said.
The grabbers, Kembo said, are also targeting land in major towns. He cited Nanyuki where grabbers have even attempted to evict a police station.
A prison facility and a county commissioner’s residence have also been grabbed in the town in Laikipia county.
Other towns where government houses have been lost include Nyahururu town in Laikipia county, Kerugoya town in Kirinyaga and in Murang’a town in Murang’a county.
The EACC official said he could not immediately give the number of acreage as most of the parcels are government houses and their sizes vary from one house to another.
The anti-corruption agency, he said, is at advanced stages of recovering those parcels of land.
Kemboi also put on notice all those who are occupying the said lands to surrender the title deeds before the law catches up with them.
“I want to request all those Kenyans within the Central region jurisdiction who have taken away government land or houses, please surrender those title (deeds) so that the land is reverted back for government use,” he said.
