[Source: Daily Nation, by Nyambega Gisesa]
Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission Sunday moved to repossess prime land located within the Eldoret central business district, which was grabbed by a firm that was untouchable during the Daniel arap Moi presidency.
On this plot stand the Eldoret Fire Station, the Administration Police camp, the High Court, Children’s, Environment and Land courts, the Court of Appeal and a public hospital.
The five parcels of land, valued at over Sh1 billion were grabbed by Lima Limited, one of the biggest dealers in farm equipment in Kenya and which has been in the past found guilty of grabbing public land.
In the 1990s, Lima Ltd tried to seize part of Karura Forest, triggering a bitter war with environmentalist Prof Wangari Maathai. The firm had been given 16 acres of the forest and was selling them at Sh60 million each.
The company, which is co-owned by Mr Moi and former Cabinet minister Nicholas Biwott, who died in July 2017, was one of the multi-billion investments the two leaders co-owned.
They formed the company in 1975 to take advantage of the indigenisation policy that was established in the 1970s, and whose objective was to loosen European and Asian businessmen’s grip on economic power.
The titles of the grabbed land were later used to secure a loan by Trans-National Bank Limited, another business co-owned by Moi and Biwott.
According to the ruling, which was delivered last week, “the commissioner of lands had no authority to alienate the land, as under section 3 of the Government Lands Act the power to alienate unalienated government land lay with the president.”
Since he left power in 2002, several parcels of land meant for public utilities, which were grabbed by companies associated with Mr Moi and the untouchables of the Nyayo era have been reclaimed.
In October 2010, the courts also revoked seven pieces of land owned by Lima Limited located in Eldoret town.
