The Ethics and anti-corruption Commission (EACC) has exposed a land-grabbing scandal in Mombasa County, where public property worth over Sh10 billion has been illegally acquired by private entities. 

On Tuesday, EACC launched a crackdown on the culprits and recovered some of the properties through court orders.

One of the properties is the Shanzu Estate, an eight-acre land with government staff quarters, which was grabbed from the Ministry of Water and its affiliate agencies by Gulf Energy and other defendants.  

The estate, valued at Sh365 million, is adjacent to Shanzu Teachers College and is part of a larger property in the area valued at Sh2 billion, which the EACC is targeting.

The EACC's Chief Executive Officer Twalib Mbarak, accompanied by Mombasa Governor Abdullswamad Nassir and other senior government officials, visited the site today and revealed the details of the case. 

The EACC has obtained orders from the Environment and Land Court in Mombasa to stop any development on the property pending the hearing and determination of the case.

The EACC is also pursuing other cases involving public land and houses belonging to various public institutions, such as Kenya Airports Authority, Kenya Revenue Authority, Kenya Broadcasting Corporation, and the University of Nairobi.

Mombasa is among the counties with serious land-grabbing challenges in Kenya. Currently, the EACC is pursuing over 130 cases in court seeking to recover grabbed public properties worth approximately Sh10 billion within this region. 

The EACC has successfully recovered several properties in Mombasa through litigation and Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR). 

- Hobley Estate in the Buxton area belonging to the Ministry of Housing, next to the Affordable Housing Project in Mombasa and has a current market value of Sh 500,000,000.

The property is currently housing County Government employees.

- Seven prime properties comprising six government houses belonging to the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA) and one belonging to the Ministry of Housing all in Nyali/Bamburi Estate cumulatively valued at Sh420 million. 

The EACC's investigations have revealed that the directors and shareholders of Gulf Energy Limited, one of the main grabbers of the Shanzu Estate, are Francis Koome Njogu, Auron Energy Limited (a foreign company), and Paul Kiprotich Limo. Gulf Energy charged the land MN/I/9647 and MN/I/9648 at Barclays Bank of Kenya Limited for the sum of USD. 10,000,000.00 vide charge dated 4th February 2016.

On 14th November 2023, Justice Lucas Naikuni of the Environment and Land Court sitting in Mombasa granted EACC orders prohibiting the defendants from any dealings on the property pending the hearing and determination of the case.

The EACC has vowed to continue its fight against corruption and land-grabbing in the county and urged the public to report any suspicious transactions involving public land. The EACC's report was aired by KTN's Ode Francis, who followed the site visits and interviewed the officials involved. By Winfrey Owino, The Standard