After reclaiming land in Kilifi town, the county government is ready to begin constructing its headquarters next month at a cost of Sh500 million shillings.
The project was stalled due to land grabbing, but now, with the land secured, construction can proceed.
Governor Gideon Mung’aro announced that the groundbreaking ceremony for the one-stop county headquarters will take place in May.
This initiative will also help the county save money spent on renting office spaces.
The Social Services Department Land belonging to the Government was seven acres but three acres had been grabbed and houses built on it.
Some of the land had been taken by former officials from the social services department and the County Physical Planning.
After retiring, they built expensive rental houses and mansions as their retirement homes.
On Thursday at 5 am, the county enforcement officers used a grader to demolish all the buildings and reclaim the land.
Governor Mung’aro expressed embarrassment that the county still rents office spaces for various departments, costing millions each year, despite some government land meant for the headquarters being grabbed."
“I will not tire until I repossess all grabbed land and there is already a Sh 500 million budget to construct the county headquarters so that we save the money we use in paying rent and use that money on development projects,” he said.
The Governor also warned all those who had built on government land to vacate immediately as they would be demolished soon.
He however promised to compensate those traders whose stalls were demolished along Kilifi streets to pave the way for modern container shops and bring sanity and order of doing business in the town.
Kilifi County Executive Committee Member for Lands, Energy Housing Physical Planning and Urban Development Jane Kamto said former government officials obtained title deeds from land that already had a title deed that belonged to the government.
“ I wonder how senior government officials managed to grab public land in their hands and even acquired title deeds, you cannot have a title deed resurrecting from the air which has no proper origin such as a sale agreement to show that it exchanged hands,” she said.
During the demolition, former residents expressed gratitude to the Governor for reclaiming the land and urged him to begin construction of the county headquarters promptly.
They mentioned that they had always known the land belonged to the government and were puzzled as to how former government officials were able to build mansions and rental houses on it over the years.
