Interior CS Fred Matiang'i has expressed his anger at what he termed as a culture of senior government officials grabbing public land with impunity.
Speaking at the Ruiru Prisons Staff Training College on Monday, March 7, the CS decried that the list of land grabbers read like a list of the who is who in the present and past governments.
He reiterated that the government was seeking interventions from the National Land Commission (NLC) to recover prison land grabbed by influential people over the years.
"I normally like being very frank with the public. When I look at the list of the people who have stolen our land, the prison's land, it reads like the list of who has been a minister, a PS or a Commissioner General Prison's service before. It is shameful honestly," Matiang'i stated.
He cited Yatta, Eldoret and Kapsabet as some of the areas where large tracts of prison land had landed in the hands of prominent people in questionable circumstances.
"When you go around the country, the challenges we are facing are that those who have been given the responsibility to manage these institutions and to be in charge are the ones who have encroached on prison land. I have given you an example of Yatta. Just go to Yatta and see.
"The prison facility has been reduced to 15 acres. They are actually now squatting on land which essentially belonged to the prisons and then all manner of people, some of them very senior public officials who have taken up prison land," the CS stated.
As part of measures to stop the theft of prison land, Matiang'i noted that his ministry was spearheading aggressive titling of idle spaces to secure them.
The no-nonsense CS further appealed to the grabbers to willingly surrender the grabbed land even as it embarks on the process of repossession.
Matiang'i, who also chairs the National Development Implementation and Communication Cabinet Committee, also took time to update on the government's progress in achieving the Big Four Agenda.
Among the projects he hailed was the installation of a Level 6 hospital for the military and security sector personnel, currently being built in Kabete, Kiambu County.
The CS sought to assure the security sector that the government was working towards improving the welfare of the men in uniform - noting that a Level 4 hospital in Kanyonyo, built for the military staff, was ready for launch.
"We are now targeting recruitment of professionals, doctors, nurses, clinicians for cadet officials to come work for the forces. The hospital to be completed by June as demanded by the president."
