4,242 acres of Prisons land stolen, 102 title deeds missing, reveals PS

Correctional Services PS Salome Beacco before the Public Accounts Committee. [Elvis Ogina, Standard]

A public watchdog committee on Thursday heard that 4,242 acres of prison land have been grabbed by squatters.

Correctional Services Principal Secretary Salome Beacco appeared before the Public Accounts Committee where she also revealed that out of a total of 117 parcels of land measuring a total 22,693 acres, they only had title deeds for 15 parcels.

She had appeared before the parliamentary team to answer queries relating to the Audit Report of the Auditor General for State Department of Correctional Services for the year ended June 30,2022.

The PS said 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.

“The ownership of two parcels of land mentioned above has been the subject of a court case between Kenya Prisons Services (KPS) and other parties (encroachers). To date 2,321.09 acres of Kitale Main Prison Farm has been illegally acquired by individuals,” she submitted.

At the Shimo la Tewa Medium prison, 141.24 acres have been occupied by settlers while 21 acres belonging to the Nakuru GK prison have been occupied by churches and state institutions despite the Environment and Land Courts recently ruling in favour of the prisons.

A further 16.18 acres of land belonging to Narok GK prison were also alienated and allocated by the County Council to private individuals. Moreover, 4.942 acres belonging to Kitui GK prison have been occupied by a church and private individuals.

Beacco divulged that on the Narok land, out of the original 64.8 acres, 20 have been encroached by private developers noting that the County government of Narok has been regularizing part development plan 2016 that does not reflect the original acreage of the land.

“In addition, there are two active court cases where private developers have sued the Commissioner General of Prisons, the Attorney General and the officer in charge of Narok Prison for preventing them from putting up structures on the land,” she said.

She revealed the majority of the parcels of land were grabbed in the 1990s, adding that this had seen them embroiled in 36 court cases to reclaim the land.

“There were insiders in government especially in the 1980s and 1990s that helped individuals to encroach on prison land but following Presidential directive that we should reclaim all Prisons land, we are doing everything in our power to reclaim the parcels,” said Beacco.

The committee led by Nominated MP John Mbadi, however, sought to know why the department only had 15 title deeds for 15 parcels of land out of the total 117 parcels.

The committee was told that the parcels with title deeds include Kitengela Prisons, Naivasha Prison, Kamiti Prison, Murang’a Prison, Ruiru Prison, Makueni Prison, Ngeria Prison, Nyahururu Prison, Busia Prison, Kilgoris Prison, Marala Prison, Woodley staff quarters, Lumumba Farm Eldoret and Kibos.

“You must give this committee a clear strategy on how you plan to acquire title deeds for the other parcels lest they are also grabbed,” said Mbadi.
Funyula MP Wilberforce Oundo accused the state department of complacency.

“No person can encroach on government land and get a valid title deed. Why have prisons, with all their guns, not stepped in and reclaimed their land? It seems that there is a bigger issue.

Kibwezi West MP Mwengi Mutuse claimed that senior officers within Kenya Prisons were behind the encroachment, given the difficulty in reclaiming the same.

Kenya Prisons Commissioner General John Warioba ruled out forcing out the settlers saying they were pursuing the matter in court