[Source: Daily Nation, by Pauline Kairu]
The Kenya Forest Service is warning Kenyans not to be duped into buying land within Ngong Road Forest around Sunvalley Lang’ata and surrounding areas without verificaiton.
The agency said Kenyans were being swindled of millions of shillings and being sold air, within forest land.
“Much of the land that is purportedly up for sale by crooks there is part of Ngong Forest land which will be reclaimed. It is just a matter of time,” warned KFS Chief Conservator of Forests Julius Kamau on Thursday, “and it will not matter what is on the land, it will eventually revert to the KFS.”
Mr Kamau said the Ngong Road Forest sits on 1,224.4 hectares, but 789 hectares have been grabbed by unscrupulous developers and land racketeers.
However, according to a record given by KFS in 2017 the Ngong Road Forest sat on 2,850 at gazettement, in 1932. Meaning the land continues to be excised.
KFS board chairman Peter Kinyua said some people had acquired titles to the land under forest area fraudulently.
“Anybody sitting on forest land will have to vacate. Many of the people on those parcels of land there say they have titles but they have titles to what? When was it degazetted, by whom? Because for public land to convert into private land, a parliamentary process to degazette it has to have happened,” Mr Kinyua said, adding that a process was underway to recover the irregularly acquired land.
“I want to ask Kenyans who are buying in the area around Ngong Road Forest to do serious due diligence before investing millions of shillings. We do not charge for the service. It is absolutely free of charge, so Kenyans should not hesitate to should not hesitate to come to us,” advised the conservator.
Investigations by the Nation revealed that 40 by 40 ft plots are currently going for about Sh12 million. The grabbed land is currently being sold by among other sellers, a former MP.
Some of the properties adjacent to Lang’ata police dog unit, are said to sit on the private land that includes about 800 prime homes in Parkview, Sunvalley 1, Sunvalley 2, Kenya Medical Association, Lang’ata View Apartments and St Mary’s Hospital.
Most of the grabbed forest land, initially used as training ground for police dogs, now hosts lavish homes belonging to senior government officials, businessmen and a community.
In 2017, KFS announced that of the 2,850ha of woodland gazetted in 1932, only 1,224.4ha was left after some powerful and connected people grabbed almost half of it.
[Full article: Daily Nation, by Pauline Kairu]
