The Anhor October 2011 Land Scandal at Mavoko

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Impunity!

Evidence before Task Force

show a failing Government


BY ANCHOR REPORTER

ACCOUNTS emerging at the Task Force on land grabbing in Mavoko Municipality are exposing a  worrying and rapidly collapsing system of Government. Testimonies show there is total collapse of government in Mavoko where land grabbers who include elected leaders, state officials including administrators have run amok and abuse every set rule to forcefully acquire land and sell it to unsuspecting individuals.

The shocking revelations include an instance where documents recovered from a demolished structure used to sell grabbed land show that the grabbers had raised Sh 250m from unsuspecting residents.

Among those whose land is targeted are two former judges, former Assistant Director with the Kenya Anti Corruption Commission Mr Pravin Bowry, and Constitutional Affairs Minster Mutula Kilonzo, among other. State Corporations are the hardest hit. In one case of non intervention, East African Potland Cement has pleaded with former Mavoko DC to have squatters removed from their land but it had to take his removal for structure erected on the land to be demolished. Evidence adduced at the commission chaired by Ambassador John Abduba shows that once victims report to the authorities that their land had been grabbed and sold, police and the local Provincial administration turn the other way ostensibly because they too, are compromised if not land speculators.

A source who has seen an interim report on the grabbing describes it: It is like the scene of mob justice. Everyone involved has his fingers quite bloody  from councilors, council staff, civil servants and other leaders. They all have blood in their hands and the matter is murkier than earlier thought”

The team ended two days of public hearing with area residents blaming civic leaders and the provincial administration for irregular land deals in the industrial town.

The team heard complaints from several people about councilors who had allocated land belonging to other people. They accused other civic leaders of forcefully ejecting people from their plots only to sell to developers.

Chiefs from the town were also accused for involvement in the irregular land allocations especially when they take sides in land disputes. This prompted the task force to summon two chiefs whose areas were notorious for irregular land deals. The task force was told how a councilor and former mayor physically ejected an engineer from a plot he had bought from a women’s group only to sell it to a developer who has put up a petrol station. They said the former mayor ignored court orders to stop construction until the matter is determined in a pending case before a Machakos court.

Complainants told the task force how civic leaders and others defied court orders stopping them from developing plots in disputed properties. They claimed impunity was the order of the day in land issues within the town. During the hearings, some complainants protested the presence of the municipal surveyor as a member of the task force saying he was also part of the problem.

The task force was also told how relatives of politicians were dishing out public land in return for cash and pointed out the Kunkur land held in trust for the government by the East Africa Portland Cement. The government established the task force after numerous complaints from locals that ‘outsiders’ were grabbing public land in the industrial town at the expense of thousands of squatters.

The task force is to complete its work in 45 days and the government has stopped land transactions in Athi River district pending the completion of its work. Conspicuously absent were Mavoko councilors who kept away from the public hearings held at the Mavoko town hall