Thika Town MP raises alarm over grabbed public land belonging to Ministry of Public Works

Thika Town MP Alice Ng’ang’a has raised alarm over attempts by land grabbers to illegally acquire prime land belonging to the Ministry of Public Works along the busy Thika-Garissa highway.

The MP noted that the daring grabbers are currently claiming ownership of the about three-acre land where Thika Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) offices are hosted, a centre that is also used as a polling station every electioneering period.

It only emerged that the land had been grabbed by private developers recently when the government initiated the process of putting up ICT hubs on it.

According to Ng’ang’a, when she was requested to avail the requisite land documents before the establishment of the ICT hubs, she was shocked after a search from the Ministry of Lands revealed that the land, going for Ksh50 million an acre, had been leased to two individuals in 2022.

The alleged grabbers, she says, are now demanding to be compensated to vacate the prime land at the centre of controversy.  

“We now need the intervention of President William Ruto on this issue. The grabbers need to be called out as they don’t care about the generations to come,” Alice Ng’ang’a told journalists when he toured the land today.

“If this land belongs to you, come out in public and tell us how you acquired it. This is the land we use and which hosts nearly all government services,” she added.

She regretted that cartels in the land sector have stolen nearly all government land in her constituency, depriving hapless citizens of the chance to enjoy various services as there is nowhere to put up key structures.

“There is nowhere to put up markets, ICT hubs, secondary schools and other key government offices needed by our increasing population. Grabbers have stolen virtually everything,” the Thika Town MP said.

The cartels, she added, have since moved to court seeking to have the government ejected from their land which they claim to legitimately own.

“They had been invited by Thika DCC for a meeting to shed light on how they acquired the land when they demanded compensation from NLC. These people are daring,” Ng’ang’a lamented.

The land, she added, was about six acres but has since been grabbed by rogue individuals who have put up multi-billion shilling high-rise buildings on it.

James Wanyoike, the Deputy County Commissioner for Thika West Sub-County, regretted that developments within his jurisdiction had significantly slowed as a result of the runaway grabbing of public land.

“We have so many cases of government land grabbing which continues to slow developments in Thika. Right now, we want to do an ICT hub but we cannot do it because the land we intended to use is allegedly owned by other people. I have managed to meet the individuals claiming the land and they insist it belongs to them,” Wanyoike said.

“They told me that they used legal means to acquire the parcel and wanted to be compensated before they leave. This land has been in the hands of the government for as old as Thika is. While we don’t want to go into details of how they acquired it, we cannot have Public Works here for so many years and they managed to acquire the same parcel a year ago,” Wanyoike added.

He called for concerted efforts by all stakeholders to root out the land-grabbing menace that he said could result in a crisis unless arrested with immediacy.

The MP has since called on the Lands Cabinet Secretary Alice Wahome to intervene and restore the land to the public to pave the way for the construction of ICT hubs.