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Ministry of Lands officials who conspire with grabbers to steal public land will take personal responsibility for paying for the damages, a court has ruled.
Environment and Lands Court Judge Lucas Naikuni made the declaration in a case where he ordered former commissioner for lands Sammy Mwaita to pay Sh5 million for facilitating the transfer and grabbing of a government house in Mombasa valued at Sh70 million.
"As the then Commissioner of Lands who facilitated the fraudulent transaction of public property to a private entity, the court orders that he personally pays Sh5 million as damages for breaching public trust by dishing out public land to private persons," ruled Naikuni.
Justice Naikuni also ordered the two companies that benefitted from the fraudulent transfer of public property, Bernsoft Limited and Equitronics Limited, to pay Sh30 million in general damages for denying the government use of the property for the public benefit for 22 years.
The judge further declared that the title to the parcel in Nyali, Mombasa County, was unlawfully issued to Bernsoft Limited and Equitronics Limited, therefore null and void.
"The Land Registrar is further ordered to cancel and revoke the certificate of title issued to the two companies and issue a fresh certificate of the parcel of land to Kenya Civil Aviation Authority," ruled Naikuni.
The suit to recover the land and the government house was filed by the now-defunct Kenya Anti-Corruption Corruption in 2009 before it was taken over by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC).
The commission submitted that the land was marked for public use in 1976 and in 1977. The government constructed a four-bedroom bungalow with servant quarters to be used by the directorate of civil aviation and members of its staff.
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EACC said the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority owned the property until 2000 when the then commissioner of lands (Mwaita) altered the land's title and transferred it to Bernsoft which sold it to Equitronics.
"They transferred the property without the approval of the Board of Directors of the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority, the Minister for Transport, Minister of Lands and Minister for Finance, and without following due process," said EACC.
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