Mombasa is among the leading counties with land grabbing challenges in the country, Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission CEO Twalib Mbarak has said.
The commission has 130 cases in court where property worth Sh10 billion had been grabbed in the county.
“We are training our eyes on Mombasa and we will recover these assets. But we cannot do this on our own. We need more people to come in and help us recover the assets,” Mbarak said on Tuesday.
He said millions of Kenyans miss out on crucial services because of grabbed government properties and called on county governments to be proactive in the fight against graft.
Mbarak led the commission and Governor Abdulswamad Nassir in touring the recently recovered land and property worth Sh500 million at Hobley Road estate.
The estate, one of the oldest in the country having been established in 1931, belongs to the Housing ministry and houses senior National Government Administrative Officers and county government employees.
According to Mbarak, the land, measuring 2.5 acres, was grabbed in 1999 and subdivided into three parcels.
The land was recovered after a lengthy court battle which the EACC won in June 2022.
“The houses are old and due for redevelopment by the parent ministry,” he said.
In Nyali, seven prime properties, including six government houses belonging to Kenya Civil Aviation Authority and one belonging to Housing ministry, all valued at Sh420 million have been recovered.
In Shanzu, the commission toured an estate measuring eight acres which houses government staff quarters grabbed from the Ministry of Water.
The houses belonged to Coast Water Works Development Agency and National Water Harvesting and Storage Authority.
The EACC has obtained orders from the Environment and Land Court in Mombasa stopping an oil company from undertaking any development on the property.
The oil company is a defendant in the case.
The land is worth Sh365 million and is part of a larger parcel measuring almost 45 acres worth Sh1.2 billion that the commission is targeting for recovery.
Other grabbed properties and lands in Mombasa include land belonging to Kenya Airports Authority set aside for expansion of the Moi International Airport worth Sh2.5 billion.
Government houses meant for Kenya Revenue Authority civil servants worth Sh358.8 million in Mombasa have also been grabbed and are in EACC’s radar.
Road reserves excised from Machakos road in Mombasa currently used by University of Nairobi's Mombasa campus as parking area was also grabbed. It is worth Sh21 million.
Five parcels of land belonging to Kenya Broadcasting Corporation worth Sh150 million were also stolen and EACC is in the process of recovering them.
“A land parcel worth over Sh100 million was grabbed from the Postal Corporation of Kenya in Mombasa by a senior county official,” Mbarak said.
He noted in the MIA case, the grabbed land was part of the proposed runway.
He said the county governments should not look at EACC as enemies who are out to attack them always.
“We request county governments to contact EACC to help them recover properties belonging to them that have been grabbed,” Mbarak said.
Governor Nassir warned public officials that the government is watching and anything they do in the dark shall come to light eventually.
“Be careful what you do. It will eventually catch up with you. That is an advice to myself and other public officers,” he said.
He however defended former public officials saying not all of them were corrupt.
