NAIROBI, Kenya, Oct 27-The Directorate of Criminal Investigation (DCI), has arrested two land officials following a Ksh4 Billion county land grabbing allegation.
Mr. Salesio Kaburu Jacob the deputy director for land administration and Frankie Kamau Kamathi who is a city land broker, were arrested on October 24 for forging documents involving a 4 billion land tussle between the county government of Kwale and Lunga Lunga Ranching company.
The arrest follows after Kwale County’s physical planner complained that suspected grabbers forged a notification of approval PPA2 for the extension of lease of a parcel of land LR No.14211 and in-depth investigation established that some cartels at Ardhi house, Nairobi collaborated with several brokers who are still on the loose to fraudulently survey the land and forging a plan brief and the PPA2 to initiate the illegal extension and securing a new grant.
The piece of land ,which is 63030.0 hectares of land was initially registered under Lunga Lunga ranching company but after reviewing of the land, the National Land Commission(NLC) in 2019 reverted the land ownership to Kwale county government for settlement of squatters and the communities within the area.
“Indepth investigations launched on March 11, 2023 established that some cartels based at Ardhi Hse, Nairobi jointly with several notorious brokers some of whom are still on the loose had fraudulently surveyed the land, forged a planning brief and the PPA2 to initiate the illegal extension and indeed secured a new grant,” stated the DCI in their statement.
The two detainees have pleaded not guilty to the charges and were releases on Ksh 5 million and Ksh 4.5 million respectively without the option of a cash bail .Their case is set to be mentioned on November 9, 2023.
