Serving and former politicians, civil servants, business people and former county council employees are part of a land grabbing cartel in Murang'a County targeting public utility lands, a new government report shows.
The cartel is said to be behind the grabbing of hundreds of pieces of public utility land that include dams, government offices and schools.
A sitting MP is alleged to be part of the cartel alongside scores of retired police officers, former council employees and brokers, making it hard for the community to benefit from development projects that require land.
The report, prepared by the county commissioner's office, cites the land on which the Maragua assistant county commissioner's office sits as one of those targeted by the cartel.
"The grabbers have also targeted the spaces that host Maragua National Government Constituency Development Fund (NG-CDF) offices, police [residences] and adjacent areas earmarked for several government projects," the report reads.
The report states that the lands were surveyed in 1988 and set aside as public utility plots for future development projects.
"But in1992, the defunct Murang'a county council criminally allocated plots to individuals in the area. In 2003, there were efforts to repossess the hived off pieces as allocated to individuals," the report says.
"We have Mutundu B Nursery School, Mariki Dam that is complete and populated with 100,000 fingerlings by the government, proposed university land at Mbombo area, public cemetery and public playgrounds include projects that are currently captured as sitting on privately owned land," the report reads.
Other lands stolen include those belonging to the Kenya Railway Corporation, Maranjau Prison, markets and agricultural demonstration and research projects.
The report says area government officers, led by Assistant County Commissioner Joshua Okello, have been attempting to repossess some of the lands amid strong resistance from the cartel members.
"The government has, as part of protecting the remaining pieces of government land, banned any activities including farming on them.
In partnership with members of the public, the government will ensure that the lands are repossessed from the grabbers," the report reads.
When Nation.Africa first reported about this issue on Friday, activities emerged that reeked of designs by the cartel to fight back.
It started with Murang'a South Social Development Officer Ruth Gichuki summoning the Kenol town officials of the Maragua Residents and Business Community Association (MRBCA) and directing them to take along their original certificate of registration.
“In her office, she told us that she was acting on behalf of area administration and leaders who were uncomfortable with the way we had been quoted by Nation publications acting like activists,” said the association’s coordinator Mohammed Omar Maluki.
“She said that we are deviating from the dictates of our registration. She told us that we were not registered to be representatives of the people in our town [and that is] why she was revoking our license.”
She is said to have confiscated the certificate and urged the association to wait for further directions based on a monitoring report to be filed on a later date as to whether the group had stopped its activism.
Mr Maluki said the summonses were issued a day after a local politician held a meeting in Maragua with the administration where it was discussed at length the alleged damage the association was inflicting on the management of area affairs.
"We were accused of grabbing representational duties from our politicians and instead teaming up with the media and development partners to lobby for progress projects for our people," Mr Maluki said.
The MRBCA had revealed to Nation.Africa how development projects could not be implemented in the area because all public plots had been allocated to powerful individuals who were being protected by several corrupt government officers.
“We are supposed to have in Maragua a courthouse, a public school, a Vision 2030 market, a cemetery, a governor’s residence, a Kenya Medical Training College [campus], offices of the Murang’a Water and Sanitation Company, a cemetery, a bus park and an industrial hub,” MRBCA Chairman Henry Ruhara had said.
“But our Maragua MP Mary wa Maua has moved most of the projects to neighbouring Kimorori and Makuyu wards, leaving the public land in our area in the control of that grabbing cartel.”
These comments irked the cartels that they in turn are said to have reached out to the social officer with demands that she deregister the MRBCA.
When complaints about the purported deregistration reached Nation.Africa, we called area Deputy County Commissioner Gitonga Murungi, the overall representative of the Office of the President in Murang’a South, seeking a clarification.
“That is strange if indeed it is the case. I do not believe that there is any law in this country that limits positive activism … I do not believe that is possible in the modern Kenya that we are building,” Mr Murungi said.
“No one is limited by any law to participate in activities that pursue the common good. We as a government are also affected by those land grabbers since some of the projects we are pursuing cannot be implemented.”
He promised to address the issue, and by Friday evening, the registration had been reinstated.
Ms Gichuki, in her address to the media, said she had only called the MRBCA officials to her office for housekeeping issues that would be addressed later.
“It is important that you note that we now do not have a situation of any revocation … The group remains registered and I will be communicating further about the issue. But as of now, the issue of deregistration does not arise,” she said.
County Commissioner Karuku Ngumo described the grabbing spree of public land in the area as serious.
"All land in the country belongs to the government and if you are not legally holding it on our behalf, you stand no chance of owning it by force,” he said.
“We will investigate all title deeds in the area and whoever is to be found sitting on grabbed land will be [dispossessed] and charged in court."
"We will resurvey our lands, beacon them and fence them off. All [those] with developments on such lands will be treated as illegal developers who should compensate us for the illegal tenancy by the determination of the courts," he said.
Governor Irungu Kang'ata has acknowledged that the county has endemic land injustices that require redress.
In his campaign for governor, Dr Kang'ata had introduced Dr Winfred Mwangi, a 53-year-old land economist, as the person who will help the county deal with the land mess.
"She brings into my government over 20 years’ experience as a land administrator who has helped in handling and processing of property development applications. She is a walking archive on land approval processes like change of user, extension of leases, subdivisions and title processing," Dr Kang'ata said.
Dr Mwangi has a PhD in land economics from the University of Nairobi, where her thesis was "An Evaluation of the Administration of Land Development Applications in Nairobi". She studied the same course as an undergraduate at the same university.
Dr Mwangi is a member of the Institution of Surveyors of Kenya and a corporate member of the Architectural Association of Kenya, among other associations.
She resigned as a senior lecturer at the University of Nairobi’s Department of Real Estate and Construction Management to join Murang'a politics.
"We only need political and administrative goodwill to correct these messes," she said.
