The Judiciary in Kisumu has finally reclaimed its piece of land worth Ksh1 billion that had been grabbed in 1994.
This is after the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC), whose officials have confirmed the value of the piece of land, finalized the recovery process following a landmark judgement made in 2019.
According to court papers in our possession, the land was illegally and fraudulently excised from Kisumu Law Courts in 1994 by Charles Oyoo Kanyangi, then a Judicial Officer serving as the In-Charge of Kisumu Law Courts.
The fraudulent acquisition was facilitated by the then Commissioner of Lands Wilson Gachanja.
Although the recovery judgement was delivered by the Kisumu Environment and Land Court on March 21, 2019, the Ministry of Lands completed the process of transferring ownership of the property back to the Government on May 11, 2023, when the Ministry handed over to EACC the new title registered under the Government of Kenya.
In the judgement, Justice Boaz Olao sitting in Kisumu ruled in favour of the commission against all the defendants.
“From the resultant investigations, it is evident that there was impropriety in the alleged alienation of Kisumu Municipality/Block 8/22 and the creation of parcel Kisumu Municipality/Block 307 and the transactions which it purported to create was an 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 hence the land was not available for alienation and the title Kisumu Municipality/Block 8/22 was already registered in favour of the Government in trust for the judiciary.
“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.
Olao further observed that Kanyangi could not hide behind the claim that he was “tricked into aiding the improper allocation of court land”.
The Commission has, since delivery of the judgement in 2019 followed up on the registration of the title for the Judiciary land as per the orders of the Court and on 7th March, 2023, a lease CF No. 40880 was prepared by the Ministry of Lands and Planning.
The case began in 2018 when EACC, then called the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission (KACC) filed two suits over the same.
