[Source: The Standard, by Mt Kenya Star]
Cases of land grabbing in Thika town constituency have reached alarming levels causing outcry from residents. Public utilities including parcels set aside for schools, police posts, hospitals, social halls, recreational facilities and land belonging to squatters have been the major target for the notorious grabbers.
The disreputable grabbers have been working together with corrupt officials at the county and the Lands Ministry to forge land ownership documents before defrauding innocent locals of their land parcels.
In what seems to be a growing appetite for public land, notorious land grabbers in the region are leaving nothing to chance to satisfy their greed. Locals recently thwarted an attempt to grab a section of cemetery land in Thika town.
Township MCA Andrew Kimani said on Wednesday that the unscrupulous grabbers had already grabbed 60 acres of public land in Ngoingwa area. He said that residents put up a spirited fight with the help of the National Land Commission (NLC) and managed to recover more than 40 acres.
Kimani also disclosed that the notorious grabbers have already grabbed and sub-divided a five-acre piece of land meant for the expansion of the Thika Water and Sewerage Company’s water treatment plant in Thika town. The MCA said that he has already lodged a complaint with NLC over the land adding that action will be soon taken to reclaim the land.
“They have subdivided the land into 50×100 and 100×100 plots and sold it to unsuspecting investors. They know the land is a public utility and haven’t developed it. We will mobilize residents to go and reclaim it,” he said. Thika town MP Eng Patrick Wainaina has already written to Lands Cabinet Secretary Farida Karoney requesting a land clinic over the escalating cases of land grabbing and disputes in the region.
The MP in the letter noted that there have been ownership disputes and unending conflicts over land matters especially in Kisii, Kiganjo, Kiangombe, Makongeni, landless, Riverside, Salama and Gatuanyaga areas within the constituency.
[Full article: The Standard, by Mt Kenya Star]
