The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) has recovered a prime government land adjacent to State House, Mombasa, which had been illegally and corruptly grabbed.
According to EACC, Edward Mwangi Irungu, then a District Officer in Mombasa, grabbed the land worth KSh 30 million in collusion with the then Commissioner of Lands, Wilson Gachanja.
In her ruling on December 11, 2024, Justice Nelly Matheka of the Mombasa Environment and Land Court nullified all the transactions leading to the grabbing of the land and ordered that the property be reverted to the government.
Matheka noted that the land, Mombasa/Block XXVI/1010 measuring 0.0492 hectares, had previously been set aside for government staff, whereon the Deputy Provincial Commissioner’s official residence was erected.
After Irungu grabbed the land, EACC investigators uncovered that he sold it to Minalove Hotel & Restaurant Limited, which used the title to secure a loan facility at Equity Bank.
Further in her ruling, Justice Matheka slapped Irungu and Minalove Hotel with KSh 5,000,000 in damages for wrongful interference with public land in an irregular, illegal and fraudulent manner.
