The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) on Wednesday sent a warning to all government officials and private citizens accused of grabbing parcels of land across the country.
As the anti-graft agency moves to recover stolen land, a church in Kitui County was among the institutions dragged to court by the commission over the alleged grabbing of land worth Ksh115 million from a learning institution for the visually impaired.
The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission, on Wednesday, during a session with journalists listed the incident among cases that the agency is currently following up on with the anticipation it will end in the recovery of grabbed land.
"In Kitui we have land belonging to the visually impaired persons that have been grabbed by a church in that area worth Ksh115 million, EACC is in court seeking recovery of the land," an official remarked.
Per the commission, the church in question had reportedly grabbed the land from the Kitui Integrated Programme for the Visually Impaired.
When the parcel of land is recovered it will be returned to the institution.
Notably, EACC revealed that more information on the recovery shall be shared with the public in due course.
Besides the land belonging to the institution for the visually impaired, EACC also revealed that it was in the process of recovering another parcel of land.
"An allegation of irregular alienation of public land where the County Government of Machakos issued a lease to a private person for a parcel of land belonging to the Ministry of Housing," read a document revealing the land was worth Ksh80 million.
Additionally, the official noted that the commission had recovered a 1 acre plot valued at Ksh100 million which had been grabbed from the government.
The land in question had been allocated to several government institutions such as the Judiciary which had established residential premises. After successful recovery, the land was returned to the owners.
The official further added that EACC was pushing to recover grabbed land valued at over Ksh1.2 billion across the country.
Per the official, public institutions and entities accounted to the majority of land grabbed. He noted that some of these plots were grabbed with the help of rogue officials from the Ministry of Lands.
"EACC has noted that land grabbing remains a big challenge in the country and in fact, most government plots particularly those belonging to the Ministry of Housing in various towns across the country are in the hands of private individuals," he added.
EACC has emphasised that all those found guilty will face the law. He asked all those occupying stolen land to surrender it.
