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The State Department of Correctional services has started evicting squatters who have encroached on 4,242 acres of Prisons land across the country.
Correctional Services Principal Secretary Salome Beacco said an inter-ministerial technical committee involving Lands ministry and the National Lands Commission has also been formed to aid in recovery of 102 title deeds for parcels of land belonging to prisons.
The PS said the Judiciary had been instrumental in expediting court cases which had in turn allowed her department to reclaim some grabbed land.
“On lands that have been encroached, we have filed suits in court and we have succeeded in almost all of those cases to get judgments in our favour. We are now embarking on evicting those who have encroached the land pursuant to the judgement on those cases,” she said.
“The NLC and Ministry of Lands will be active participants in reclaiming of the encroached land and I am happy to report that some of those parcels of land have been returned. The Judiciary has pronounced itself decisively on matters prison land,” added the PS, noting that some court cases were still pending.
According to a report by the office of the Auditor General, the encroached parcels of land are valued at Sh3 billion and some have been embroiled in court disputes for over 30 years.
The report on the audit on the account of the State Department of Correctional Services for the 2021/2022 financial year revealed that part of the grabbed land includes 2,321 acres of land in Kitale belonging to Kitale Main and Kitale Medium prisons which was occupied by settlers 30 years ago.
At Shimo la Tewa Medium prison, 141.24 acres have been occupied by settlers while 21 acres belonging to Nakuru prison have been occupied by churches and state institutions despite the Environment and Land Court ruling in favour of the prisons.
A further 16.18 acres of land belonging to Narok prison were alienated and allocated by the County Council to private individuals. Some 4.942 acres belonging to Kitui prison have been occupied by a church and private individuals.
Appearing before a parliamentary watchdog committee last year, PS Beacco said on the Narok land, out of the original 64.8 acres, 20 have been encroached by private developers
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