EACC Recovers Grabbed Land In 3 Mombasa Estates

The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) has announced the recovery of three prime public pieces of land in Mombasa County which were grabbed by wealthy developers.

In a notice on Tuesday, November 21, the Twalib Mbarak-led commission noted that the land grabbers had encroached on three estates in Buxton, Nyali and Shanzu areas.

Mbarak and Mombasa Governor Abdulswamad Nassir are set to visit the properties this morning. The properties also include government staff quarters in the Buxton area.

A view of Buxton Point Apartments in Mombasa County. /PCS

Other senior government officials will also be expected to attend the event to be updated on the commission’s efforts to recover grabbed land.

"CEO Twalib Mbarak accompanied by Mombasa Governor Abdullswamad Nassir and other Senior Government Officials will today from 9:30 am undertake site visits to high-value public properties that the Commission has recovered from grabbers in Mombasa County.

"The prime properties include three Estates with Government staff quarters in the Buxton area, Nyali, and Shanzu. The Buxton one is adjacent to the Government's affordable housing project," stated EACC in part.

According to EACC Head of Corporate Communications Eric Ngumbi, the anti-corruption body is pursuing other grabbed public property in the county.

This is mainly composed of agricultural land, road reserves, land reserved for the expansion of state agencies, and government houses for civil servants.

The Coastal region has been on EACC's radar and that of other authorities as well-connected individuals are conspiring with land officials to grab land property worth billions of shillings.

On October 25, detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations' (DCI) Land Fraud arraigned two lands officials in court who were charged with fraud in a Ksh4 billion land deal in Kwale County.

The duo, among them the Deputy Director for Land Administration Salesio Kaburu Jacob, was arraigned at the Kwale Law Courts.

Kaburu was reported to be implicated in the Ksh4 billion land tussle between the county government of Kwale and Lunga Lunga Ranching Company Ltd.

In June, a court in Mombasa issued orders stopping the sale of land worth Ksh150 million allegedly grabbed from the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC) pending the hearing and determination of a recovery case filed by the EACC.

This came after a probe undertaken by the anti-corruption watchdog following a complaint from KBC filed on September 29, 2022, alleging the illegal allocation of land reserved for extension of the State broadcaster to a private developer.

Around the same month, EACC through its investigations linked a former land commissioner to the grabbing of a Ksh70 million government house in Nyali, Mombasa.