Kenyatta University land also grabbed like Langata Primary playground

Recent revelations indicate that public institutions, among them primary schools and police stations have suffered from land grabbers. The grabbers greed has now upgraded to institutions of higher learning with Kenyatta university being the most affected.

The Vice Chancellor of Kenyatta University, Olive Mugenda has said that up to a hundred acres of the institution’s land has been occupied illegally, a situation the university has tried to redress for over 20 years in the courts. According to Prof. Mugenda, the Kenyatta University council allocated 30.8 acres to 672 squatters in 1984 but that changed when former president Daniel Moi allegedly offered the squaters 70 more acres in the Kamae area.

Moi’s gift was however ruled as illegal by the parliament for lacking necessary papers and approval. “The position of parliament then was that the land can not belong no anybody else because it was a roadside declaration by Moi” said Prof Mugenda while addressing journalists in her office. It is not clear how some of the squatters and occupants of the land later managed to have title deeds

Plans by the university to construct a multi-million children’s hospital are on hold due to the encroachment. Mugenda said the hospital plan has already been approved and the illegal occupants should be evicted so that the project can start.

The NLC chairman Mohammed Swazuri confirmed the university‘s land had been encroached and urged the occupants of the land to table their ownership documents to NLC to accertain their claims. “According to section 53 and 55 of the land act, anybody who occupies public land, or prevents a public utility to be constructed on public land commits an offence and they are liable to imprisonment” Said Swazuri