Jinx of top land office comes back to haunt Gachanja trio

The arraignment of former Land Commissioners Wilson Gachanja and Zablon Mabeya over their alleged roles in grabbing of land the Coast has brought to the fore the jinx that haunts holders of that office.

Gachanja and Mabeya were on Monday charged before a Mombasa court with grabbing of a public beach plot in Diani about 30 years ago.

Past holders of the office are today troubled, as they either face piles of cases in court or are under investigations related to aiding the grabbing of public land.

Gachanja has been facing a litany of land fraud civil cases in various courts across the country, while Mabeya, who also served as a former senior land officer in charge of the defunct Coast province, has also been facing several civil cases.

The two, alongside former physical planner Jabu Salim Mohamed, are facing fresh charges of helping Galerius Investment  illegal acquire Sh30 million land, dubbed Kwale Diani Beach block/1072, meant for a public access road.

Criminal case

Despite facing many civil suits, several of which Gachanja has been convicted of, this is the first time he and Mabeya are being preferred with a criminal case.

The land had been reserved as a public beach access road but was illegally allocated to former Kwale senator Boy Juma Boy (deceased) on June 23, 1994. A Certificate of Lease was illegally issued in favour of Galerius Investment Ltd.

Starting from the first African commissioner of Land, Raymond Njenga, Gachanja, Mabeya and Judith Marylyn Okungu, the first National Land Commission (NLC) chairman Mohammad Swazuri and several other top officials in the Ministry, past holders of that office are facing civil or criminal cases arising from their roles.

Interestingly, most of the cases are linked to controversial land allocations across the country and dubious compensation of private land owners by the State.

Although she was never charged, Kitui Governor Charity Ngilu, who served as President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Land’s Cabinet Secretary, was among five ministers suspended over graft allegations in 2015.

Ngilu’s alleged undoing was related to the State-planned purchase of land from Likoni businessman Evanson Waitiki, State House Crescent land and a Sh8 billion piece of land in Karen that was under probe by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) which later cleared her.

Usually, only the stolen land is recovered while the officials go unpunished. But now EACC chief Twalib Mbarak says the commission is looking into other cases with a view to parading those involved in fraud to answer criminal charges.

“In such cases related to recovery of public properties, there are civil and criminal aspects. In this case, the criminal element has come out after the civil suit. That is why we have arrested the suspects. There are many land fraud cases coming up, with these two (Gachanja and Mabeya) being linked to some. Should we establish criminal culpability, they will be charged. This will serve as a lesson and warning to public officers in national and county governments — that you can abuse your position but you will pay one day,” Twalib said.

Two months ago, EACC handed back 39 title deeds with an approximate total value of Sh5 billion to various public entities and county governments that it had recovered from alleged grabbers.

The institutions initially owned the pieces of land before they were corruptly acquired by private people  in collusion with public officials.

According to Twalib, his officers are pursuing 357 civil cases filed in various courts seeking to recover public assets valued at approximately Sh14 billion, some of which the ex-land officials are implicated in.

For those who knew him, Gachanja was influential, perhaps only second in ranking after then President Daniel arap Moi as far as land matters were concerned.

He became one of the most sought-after State officials during the Moi regime.

So powerful he was that, on September 17, 1997, then Local Government Cabinet Minister Francis Lotodo, while speaking in Parliament following a complaint by MP Phoebe Asiyo over grabbing of Bungoma County Council land by a private developer, described him by painting a picture of a rogue officer only comparable to “an animal” that does not listen to anyone.

“We shall do what the gracious lady is saying (cancelling the transfer of the land), but she should know  we are dealing with a different  ‘animal’ called the Commissioner of Land, Wilson Gachanja. He will not listen to anyone in this country!” a hapless Lotodo is quoted telling the House.

From court to court

Gachanja left office in 1997. He has been on the radar of EACC for years now, forcing him to spend his sunset days moving from one courtroom to another to defend himself from accusations that, with the stroke of a pen, he could help graft barons and politicians acquire public land.

After leaving office, Gachanja, whose financial status has dwindled, retreated to his village farm in remote Gatero village, Laikipia West constituency, where he practices farming. He is also a preacher with the Seventh Day Adventist Church.

He has been indicted by several courts for aiding Kanu bigwigs and graft barons steal vast tracts of land in Nairobi, Kilifi, Eldoret and Kitale. In one of the cases, a three-judge bench ordered repossession of a parcel of land in 2020.

Gachanja was fined Sh1 million over his role in facilitating fraudulent transfer of a multimillion piece of land (No. 35664/II/42A) belonging to Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) in Mtwapa, Kilifi.

Around the same time, Justice Bernard Eboso, in a civil case filed by EACC, found Gachanja guilty of aiding the theft of a Sh700 million parcel of land belonging to Kenya School of Law by private developers in 1997, allegedly with the involvement of former Judge Leonard Njagi.