Murkomen said President William Ruto's administration successfully
removed some of the squatters from the East African Portland Cement
Company land in Athi River in 2023.
However, he decried the many challenges pertaining to other properties across the county.
Interior CS Kipchumba Murkomen, Machakos Governor Wavinya Ndeti and
Interior PS Raymond Omollo in Machakos county /HANDOUT
Land is the biggest threat
to security in Machakos county, Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen
has said.
Murkomen claimed the
pressure that Machakos county gets from being part of Nairobi has made it a safe
haven for criminals running away from the country's capital, particularly gangs
that take over large tracks of land in the area.
"As you know, we
have been dealing with squatters' problems. This problem in Machakos isn't [about]
squatters because most of the squatters who are giving us problems in Machakos
are basically procured, transported and paid to occupy private and public land
with the intention of grabbing it in the end," the CS said.
"These are gangs
who are brought from different parts of the country, squatters hired by tycoons
who are the actual land grabbers, but want to use citizens to that effect."
Murkomen said
President William Ruto's administration successfully removed some of the
squatters from the East African Portland Cement Company land in Athi River in
2023. However, he decried the many challenges pertaining to other properties
across the county.
The CS added that
they would collect proposals from the public on how best to effectively deal with
the issue. He assured genuine squatters that their interests would be taken
care of.
Murkomen said there
were also members of the public who had been duped to buy land by dishonest
characters in the business of grabbing land. He said the land
syndicate in Machakos county is not confined to big people alone.
"There are
prominent business people, highly placed politicians and government officials,
officials from the Ministry of Lands, our ministry [Interior], police officers,
administrative officers who are colluding with these criminals to perpetuate this
land fraud," Murkomen added.
He said they had from
the security briefing in Machakos decided that the issue must be escalated to
the National Security Council.
"We must have
one strategy to confront this problem in Machakos, and it must not be a
strategy of one administration,” the CS added. “It must be the strategy of the government
of Kenya so that we deal with it once.”
Murkomen said the
fact that the county has large and idle pieces of land has contributed to the
high levels of land fraud.
"We want to have
active conversations with these (land) owners and ask ourselves how best we are
going to help them secure their land so that they don't become victims of land
grabbing. We are also going to work with the Ministry of Lands to ensure that
genuine title deeds are established."
The CS said there
were already existing government task force reports that need to be implemented
and once they escalate these issues to the National Security Committee, then
all the issues would be sorted out and a way forward communicated.
He cited other
security concerns in the county such as vandalism of critical infrastructure, which
include the Nairobi Expressway and electricity installations.
Murkomen said the
government would continue deploying better strategies to ensure that those
vandalising critical infrastructure face the law.
"We are going to
have a general cooperation with the Judiciary. We don't want suspects of
serious crimes being given lenient bail terms and then released in the society
to continue harassing people in this country," the CS added.
He addressed the
press at the sidelines of the 'Jukwaa La Usalama' Forum in Machakos county
on Saturday.
Murkomen was
accompanied by his Principal Secretary Raymond Omollo and hosted by Eastern
regional and Machakos county security and intelligence committee led by regional
commissioner Paul Rotich and county commissioner Josephine Ouko.
