EACC recovers Sh150m land from ex-minister, Mosop MP

Anti-graft body headquarters at Integrity Centre on Valley Road in Nairobi. FILE PHOTO | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • The agency, Wednesday said the parcels of land, which belong to the Kenya Railways Corporation (KRC), were recovered through civil suits in the months of February and March 2020.

  • The parcels include Kisumu Municipality Block 7/411 which was irregularly allocated to Mr Aringo who also served as Alego Usonga MP.

  • Others are; Kisumu Municipality Blocks 7/503, 7/520 and 7/521 which were allocated to Mr Tuwei.

The anti-graft body has recovered four parcels of land worth Sh150 million alleged to have been illegally acquired by Mosop MP Vincent Tuwei and former minister Peter Oloo Aringo in Kisumu.

This comes barely a week, after civil society groups staged demos to protest the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission’s (EACC) sluggishness to deal with corruption.

The agency, Wednesday said the parcels of land, which belong to the Kenya Railways Corporation (KRC), were recovered through civil suits in the months of February and March 2020.

“The Kisumu Land and Environment Court made favourable judgements for the four plots. We will extract the decree and serve it to the Registrar of Lands in Kisumu,” EACC Western regional boss George Oira told the Nation.

He said properties will have their illegally acquired leases cancelled and register rectified to revert the plots to KRC.

The parcels include Kisumu Municipality Block 7/411 which was irregularly allocated to Mr Aringo who also served as Alego Usonga MP.

Others are; Kisumu Municipality Blocks 7/503, 7/520 and 7/521 which were allocated to Mr Tuwei.

Contacted, Mr Aringo had no comment on the matter while Mr Tuwei could not be reached by the time of going to press.

In October last year, EACC announced that it had recovered land and assets worth Sh1.69 billion in Western ad Nyanza regions.

The assets recovered through court proceedings and out-of-court settlements include parcels of land belonging to KRC, pubblic utilities, the Judiciary and county governments, that had been grabbed by prominent individuals.

Western region EACC office recovered 11 parcels of land belonging to the KRC in Kisumu County valued at Sh454 million.

According to Mr Oira, they also successfully recovered two grabbed parcels of land worth Sh830 million belonging to the Judiciary in Kisumu.

In Kakamega, EACC recovered six plots belonging to the county government valued at Sh41 million.

But members of the civil society and residents have blamed the Western and South Nyanza regional offices headquartered in Kisumu and Kisii counties respectively of laxity in dealing with reports, especially those affecting county governments in the region.

According to the activists, the zeal by the commission to bring the culprits to book has been low.