Matiang’i accuses senior govt officials of land grabbing

Interior CS Fred Matiang'i is accusing senior government officials of grabbing public land. [Ministry of Interior]

Ministers, a PS and senior government officials have been implicated in the grabbing of land owned by the State Department for Correctional Services.

Speaking during a visit at the Ruiru Prison Training college, Interior CS Fred Matiang’i said the Ministry, in conjunction with the National Lands Commission, would embark on the repossession of the land meant for the expansion of prison facilities.

“I am not shy to tell you that people who have encroached prison land are the who-is-who in the country. People who have been ministers or a PS or Commissioner general,” Matiang’i said.

Giving examples of prisons that had lost huge chunks of land to grabbers, the CS mentioned Yatta, Eldoret, Kapsaret, Kapenguria GK Prison, Murang’a Juvenile Remand Home, and Mwea GK Prisons.

“I’ve just come from Yatta Prison in Machakos County. The facility has been reduced to 15 acres. The commandant was telling me that it feels like a student quarter. They are literally squatting on land that essentially belongs to them!”

The government has launched a titling program that will entail validation and collaborative land mapping with an aim of protecting the remaining land from further grabbing.

Matiang’i has also appealed to grabbers to willingly surrender grabbed land as it embarks on the process of repossession.

The CS also inspected the progress of the construction of the Kenya Prisons Service Hospital at the Prisons Staff Training College (PSTC), Ruiru.

The Level Four hospital is one of four specialized hospitals for the disciplined services that are being constructed in the country in line with the Big 4 agenda investments in the health sector.

“…we are looking at how can we use the capabilities that we have to expand the facilities and avail them to members of the public who live within the vicinity because that is how people who care about their country think,” he said.

The CS was accompanied by the PS, Correctional Services Safina Kwekwe and the Commissioner of Prisons, Brig (Rtd) John Warioba.