The Ethics and Anti-corruption Commission (EACC) has recovered a Ksh15 million plot carved out of a road reserve in Mombasa and illegally allocated by ex-Commissioner of Lands Wilson Gachanja.
This follows a ruling by Justice Sila Munyao that nullified the title effectively reverting the land back to the County Government of Mombasa.
The parcel is among several others that Gachanja, alongside other former senior government officials, were accused of illegally allocating themselves when they served as commissioners.
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Apart from the County Government of Mombasa, the commissioner is said to have hived chunks of land from the Kenya Meteorological Department, Kenya Railways and Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organisation.
In 2020, Gachanja was found guilty by three courts of aiding the late President Daniel Arap Moi’s government bigwigs and graft barons who stole land in Nairobi, Kilifi and Kitale.
In one of the cases, Gachanja was found guilty of aiding theft of a Ksh700 million property belonging to Kenya School of Law by private developers in 1997.
The one acre-piece of land on Bishops Road in Nairobi’s Upper Hill area, had two houses reserved as the official residence of the Kenya School of Law Principal but Gachanja’s signature saw it transferred to Rockville Limited.
In another case, on November 12, 2020, Gachanja was found guilty of facilitating the fraudulent transfer of a multimillion piece of land belonging to the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) in Mtwapa, Kilifi county, to one of its employees. He was ordered to pay a Ksh1 million fine.
He was also found culpable in the theft of Kisumu Municipality Block 7/567 measuring 72.38 ha belonging to Railways Corporation.
