By Gabriel Somba
Former District Commissioner Peter Alubale has lost a Sh20 million land that had been illegally allocated by former Commissioner of Lands Wilson Gacanja in 1996 after the state anti-graft agency won a suit over the property.
The Kakamega law courts declared that the suit was unlawfully allocated to Alubale and cancelled the title for the land as sought by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC).
Chief magistrate Philip Mutua agreed with the EACC that the land was irregularly allocated as it had been reserved for government houses and there were government houses on it when Alubale was allocated tpart of the land in 1996.
The land belonged to the Ministry of Housing before it was illegally hived off and awarded to Alubale by the then Commissioner of Lands Wilson Gachanja on a lease of 99 years.
EACC sued both Alubale and Gacanja seeking to recover the land.
“The letter by the District Lands Officer dated October 3, 1995clearly states that the area in question forms part of Plot No. Block 111/100 which contains the government house but the area edged in red excludes the house. This therefore confirms that there was a government house on the plot meaning it was already reserved for that purpose,” said Mutua.
“The Lands’ Officer’s assertion that the area excludes the government house was factually incorrect because the servant’s quarters to the main house are located in the plot which was allocated to (Alubale).”
Mutua nullified the allocation of the land to Alubale and directed the registrar of lands to rectify the register to indicate that the land belongs to the government.
The magistrate said that the EACC had proved that there existed a government house on the land and there were civil servants who were living on it while paying rent to the government and therefore the land could not have been available for allocation.
Mutua said Alubale presented evidence that was laced with lies and incorrect material facts that included an application for a parcel of land disguised as an allocation letter.
And in dismissing the argument by Alubale who insisted he had been allocated the land legally, Mutua pointed the facts that according to evidence by EACC, the land had been reserved for the government civil servant houses, a house and a servant’s quarter been constructed on it and the same occupied by civil servants who were paying rent to the Housing Department.
And with this being the case, the magistrate said the land was not un-alienated government land and therefore the same was neither available for allocation to (Alubale) nor any other entity nor could it be sub0-divided and part thereof allocated to anybody.
Mutua said that apart from the land being already reserved for government houses and therefore unavailable for sub-divisions and allocation,there were anomalies that rendered the allocations unprocedural, irregular and unlawful.
These allocation claims by Alubale are lawfully as the claims “are based on untrue allegations of fact or in concealment of material facts namely – the fact that the land was already surveyed; allocated to County Council of Kakamenga and therefore not unsurveyed as alleged and that on it, stood servant’s quarters to the main government house,” stated Mutua, adding that “any such sub-division and allocation is null and void, and unlawful and cannot confer any title to anybody.”
In a daring land fraud, Alubale acquired part of a government land where housing civil servants lived. The Ministry of Lands, housing and urban development will repossess the property after EACC victory.
