Judiciary finally reclaim 1B land
The Kisumu Judiciary has finally reclaimed a plot of land that was taken from it in 1994 and was worth Ksh1 billion.
After a historic decision was rendered in 2019, the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC), whose employees have verified the value of the parcel of land, completed the recovery procedure.
According to court documents we have in our hands, Charles Oyoo Kanyangi, who was the Kisumu Law Courts’ In-Charge at the time and a judicial officer, fraudulently and unjustly expropriated the land in 1994.
Wilson Gachanja, who served as the then-commissioner of lands, assisted in the fraudulent acquisition.
Even though the Kisumu Environment and Land Court issued the recovery judgment on March 21, 2019, the Ministry of Lands finally finished the process of returning government ownership of the property on May 11, 2023, when it gave the EACC the new title that had been registered under the Kenyan government.
In the judgement, Justice Boaz Olao sitting in Kisumu ruled in favour of the commission against all the defendants.
“From the investigations that followed, it is clear that there were irregularities in the alleged alienation of Kisumu Municipality/Block 8/22 and the creation of parcel Kisumu Municipality/Block 307, and the transactions that it purported to create were illegality as the Kisumu Municipality/Block 8/22 was alienated way back in 1930 when the first survey was done and the reservation for the judiciary was made way back in 1951, so the land was not available for alienation a.”
“In any event, there was no surrender of title to Kisumu Municipality/Block 8/22 before the land was sub-divided and allocated to private persons and the purpose for the reservation of Kisumu Municipality/Block 8/22 for the Judiciary has never ceased, Olao ruled.
Judiciary finally reclaim 1B land
Olao further observed that Kanyangi could not hide behind the claim that he was “tricked into aiding the improper allocation of court land”.
The case began in 2018 when EACC, then called the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission (KACC) filed two suits over the same.
