The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) has secured the recovery of a public road reserve in Mombasa valued at approximately Ksh25 million following a ruling by the Environment and Land Court.
The property, identified as Mombasa Municipality/Block XIX/305, is located along Machakos Road and serves as an access route to the University of Nairobi’s Mombasa Campus.
In a judgment delivered on Thursday, September 24, Justice Yuvinalis Angima ruled that the parcel was part of a road reserve that had been unlawfully and fraudulently alienated in 1994.
The court declared the lease and survey plan used to create the parcel invalid and ordered the relevant land and survey records to be amended.
The case arose from EACC investigations into the alleged unlawful allocation of land that had been set aside for public use.
According to the Commission, the road reserve was illegally excised from Machakos Road and allocated to the late Ezekiel Luyali, who was serving as a councillor at the former Municipal Council of Mombasa.
EACC said the allocation was facilitated by former Town Clerk David Kalume Randu and former Mayor Ahmed Mwidhani.
The Commission established that the allocation took effect on June 1, 1994, resulting in a lease being issued on September 1 and registered the following day.
However, the court found that the legal requirements for closing and alienating a public road under the Local Government Act had not been followed.
The court noted that there was no evidence of Gazette notices announcing the proposed closure of the road, an approved Part Development Plan, a council or committee resolution authorising the allocation, or ministerial approval for the purported 99-year lease.
Justice Angima consequently found the 1994 alienation illegal and fraudulent and ruled that EACC had proved its case for recovery of the property.
The court declared the September 1, 1994 lease over Mombasa Municipality/Block XIX/305 null and void, finding that it had been issued beyond the legal powers of the officials involved.
The Chief Land Registrar was directed to cancel the entries relating to the lease, while the Director of Survey was ordered to cancel Survey Plan Folio Register No. 264/37 that had created the parcel.
The court also issued a permanent injunction barring the property from being sold, transferred, leased, charged, disposed of or otherwise dealt with.
EACC said the ruling reinforces the legal protection given to land reserved for public use and stressed that such property cannot lawfully be converted into private ownership.
The Commission urged public officers and institutions responsible for public land to comply with the law and protect public resources.
The ruling comes shortly after EACC secured another recovery order involving a former Homa Bay County Government employee who was found to have received Ksh708,664 in excess salary payments over more than three years.
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In that case, the High Court ordered former medical social worker Evelyne Adhiambo Ogweno and former county payroll officer Maurice Ochieng Wambo to jointly refund the money to the government.
EACC said the recovery followed investigations into multiple salary payments made to current and former Homa Bay County Government employees.
The Commission established that Ogweno received additional payments between February 2015 and May 2018, amounting to Ksh708,664 above her regular salary.
The recovery formed part of a series of cases arising from investigations into alleged losses of Ksh42.25 million through the Homa Bay County Government payroll system.
