Joseph Nyagah denies grabbing Kisumu land

Presidential candidate Joseph Nyagah has denied grabbing two pieces of land in Kanyakwar, Kisumu County.

Mr Nyagah, who is running for the highest office in the country as an independent candidate, maintained that he legally bought the two pieces of land near Kisumu International Airport from the defunct Kisumu Municipal Council when he was the minister for cooperatives in the grand coalition government.

“I bought two little plots of land near the Kisumu International Airport when I was a member of the ODM Pentagon. My intention was to demonstrate that as a nationalist, one could own property in any part of the country.

TITLE DEEDS

“I bought the plots from the Kisumu Municipal Council and I was looking forward to putting up some investment, but even as we speak, I have not been given the title deeds for them even though I’ve been paying rates consistently,” Mr Nyagah told the Nation.

Mr Nyagah was among hundreds of land owners whose title deeds were revoked by the National Land Commission (NLC) through a special Kenya Gazette notice dated July 17 this year on the grounds that the properties were irregularly acquired.

GRANTS

The notice stated that each of the two plots owned by Mr Nyagah measured 0.050 hectares (0.12355). The plots are to be given back to the Kisumu County government, according to the notice.

The NLC stated that it had reviewed the grants after receiving complaints from members of the public, the national government and various county governments.

“The commission has revoked all allocations done by Kisumu Municipal Council – the predecessor of the Kisumu county government – in Kanyakwar, Mamboleo and Kibos on the outskirts of Kisumu town, the scene of long drawn out land disputes dating back to 1967, but upheld all the allocations by the Commissioner of Lands.

"As a result, 115 people and entities have lost titles to their lands while 82 have had theirs upheld,” said NLC chairman Muhammad Swazuri.