The DCI is investigating at least 50 individuals who were illegally paid close to Sh300 million in compensation for the Southern Bypass land in Eldoret.
Uasin Gishu county commissioner Abdi Hassan said they have identified 11 individuals who presented fake land documents. They were compensated for land at the Maili Tisa interchange.
He said the DCI will probe all the 1,025 land along the by-pass route to confirm if they are genuine.
“There are many others, but we are following up so that we get those who were paid, yet they are just ghost landowners,” Hassan said.
The administrator said DCI officers are looking into the matter and those involved would be arrested and prosecuted. They will also be compelled to return all the money they were paid illegally.
“The government is using public money to develop the road, and we wonder who these people are to con their way into the compensation scheme for genuine landowners,” Hassan said.
The government has on several occasions been forced to suspend work on the Sh5.6 billion Eldoret Southern Bypass project over compensation row with landowners and fake title deeds.
The families are to be paid Sh1.2 billion for compensation
Three top officials of the Lands ministry were transferred three months ago after several individuals were given fake title deeds for land belonging to Moi Barracks.
The land is being partly used for the bypass project at Maili Tisa.
The project is funded by the African Development Bank.
Hassan said genuine landowners and the director of the Kenya Farmers Association, Kipkorir Menjo, had tipped the government on the compensation fraud leading to the DCI probe.
Landowner Joseph Samoei said they will stop any work on the project until all genuine landowners are fully paid.
Uasin Gishu Governor Jackson Mandago has on several occasions met officials from the NLC and from the Kenya National Highways Authority to speed up the project. However, the row on compensation has remained unresolved in some areas, where the road passes.
Last month, the government said it had released Sh800 million to compensate more than 1,500 families, who will be displaced to pave the way for the bypass.
The money was to be paid out to all the families by the NLC before building work starts and only some families have been paid out.
Kapseret MP Oscar Sudi, in whose area the road passes, assured the families they will be fully paid so the bypass project can be completed to help ease traffic congestion in Eldoret town.
“This is a vital project that will ease the movement of goods and people through Eldoret town,” Sudi said.
The bypass will run from Ngeria on the Eldoret-Nairobi road, through areas next to Eldoret Airport before linking with the Eldoret-Webuye road in Leseru.
