The Kirinyaga County government has announced the recovery of 800 acres of public land worth over Ksh1 billion that had allegedly been grabbed and transferred to private individuals.

The recovery was confirmed by Kirinyaga County Lands CEC Samuel Kanjombe, who said the process spanned two years, revealing that the county has been forced to grapple with a shortage of public land. 

“During the last two seasons of Anne Waiguru's leadership, we were able to recover pieces of land that were grabbed and allocated to private individuals. For some, we were able to go through the court processes in a bid to recover them,” said Kanjombe.

One of the recovered parcels is in Kabare, which had been allocated to a private individual during the transition from municipalities to counties in 2012.

The reclaimed parcels, scattered across major towns, had been quietly taken over by influential individuals during the defunct local authorities’ era.

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The county lodged a complaint with DCI, which helped in investigations and presented a case in court, leading to the successful recovery of the contested land.

Kanjombe announced that the reclaimed land would be used to address pressing urban challenges, particularly in Kutus town.

“We have a problem around Kutus, especially around the bus terminus, which is heavily congested with buses and passengers. Such recovered spaces can help ease these problems,” he said.

The county plans to construct a new market on some of the recovered land to support traders who have been affected by congestion in busy areas.

Related Land Cases

In October last year, more than 200 families were evicted from a disputed 200-acre land in Kirogo, Kirinyaga County, which belonged to the Kenya Agricultural Livestock and Research Organisation (KALRO).

During the exercise, the families were forced out of the land, and their houses and crops were destroyed during the eviction operation that was enforced by police officers.

However, according to the victims, they had been living on the disputed land since the 1990s and accused the government of unlawfully kicking them out, as they have genuine title deeds.