More than 1,228 parcels of land in Kilifi county have been grabbed and are in the hands of either squatters or private developers, Governor Gideon Mung’aro has said.
He said his administration is in the process of reclaiming all grabbed land belonging to the county government.
Mung'aro spoke on Wednesday in his office after receiving valuation reports of two parcels of public land from the Intergovernmental Relations Technical Committee.
“As a government, we are struggling to get land yet we have a lot of land that has been grabbed. I am sending a warning to the grabbers that soon we will be knocking to ask our land back, unless the land is being utilised by government agencies," the governor said.
"If it’s in private hands, we are coming for it without caring about the status of the grabber.”
The national government, through the Department of Devolution and IGRTC, handed over assets previously owned by the local authorities to the county government.
The assets include two parcels of land-one at Kilifi Veterinary Services and the other at the Social Development Services- and 259 movable assets.
The two parcels are valued at Sh700 million ,while the movable assets are valued at Sh51.6 million.
Kilifi becomes the first county to receive assets previously owned by the national government and local authorities. This follows a commitment by President William Ruto during the 9th National and County Coordinating Summit in February 2023, to facilitate the transfer of assets from defunct local authorities and those linked to devolved functions.
During the handing over, the IGRTC chief executive officer Kipkirui Chepkwony commended the Kilifi government for its commitment to support and complete the drive and take over ownership of all the inherited assets.
He tasked the county government to ensure the transferred assets are updated in their asset register.
The county government is also responsible for changing the ownership.
“We have set up a multi-agency team comprising of the state department, IGRTC, NTSA, National Treasury and the State Department for Transport to support the county in implementation of the next steps that will involve transfers, reregistration, deregistration and disposal of obsolete assets,” Chepkwony said.
He said the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) has availed copies of ownership documents for the identified assets and successfully effected reregistration of some of the motor vehicles registered under various national government agencies and the defunct local authorities.
Citing some of the gaps identified during the assessment of the assets, the CEO urged the national and county governments to take the necessary steps required to identify and safeguard the assets.
“It is very unfortunate that some of the listed assets are missing on the ground, even some land parcels have been encroached and grabbed. We call upon the county to identify and address these issues with the relevant agencies,” he said.
Mung’aro thanked the IGRTC for their efforts in making the handing over exercise a success.
“We are going to use the land at the social development services that has been handed over today to construct the county headquarters. We have set aside Sh275 million to begin this project,” he said.
