How default of loan payment revealed suspected land grabbing attempt
The Nakuru law courts.
On August 23, 2024, the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) moved to court seeking preservation orders that prevented Eco- Bank from auctioning a parcel of land in Nakuru, after their client, Hashi Energy Ltd defaulted on Sh. 40 million loan.
Hashi Energy had charged the land to Eco bank for a loan but defaulted on payment.
The land in question is part of 165 acres of Agricultural Technical College (ATC) land worth over sh. 10 billion grabbed by over 50 private persons.
In his ruling, Justice Charles Kariuki prohibited Eco-bank and Hashi Energy from selling, charging, alienating, auctioning or otherwise disposing off the land pending hearing and determination of the EACC Application.
EACC claims the land to be public land. The matter will be directed further on September 19.
According to the EACC Spokesperson, Eric Ngumbi, once land grabbers acquire land titles to public land it is common practice for them to go to the banks and acquire loans with these title deeds.
“The EACC is tasked with the responsibility of recovering public land. The premise is that all transactions based on that piece of land are invalid. For example, if there was grabber who sold the piece of land to another person who later sold it to another person, all those transactions are invalid” he says.
The Spokesperson says that such incidences have occurred over time, but still insists that land set aside for public purposes or use by the government, is no longer available for any other form of allocation.
“The position of the law is very clear in that no person can claim ownership of public land if they acquired it in an irregular manner once it is gazetted, as such, it is no longer available for any other allocation,” he says.
He continues to say that EACC has been able to recover property worth Sh 4.2 billion. Land property worth Sh 637 million was recovered through court litigation while property worth Sh 3.5 billion was recovered through Alternative Dispute Resolution process.