The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) has announced success in a lawsuit over a grabbed tract of land.
In a statement via X on Saturday, December 14, the anti-graft body announced that it had reclaimed a piece adjacent to the Mombasa State House valued at Sh 30 million from Edward Mwangi.
According to the agency, Mwangi leveraged his post as a state administrator many years back to collude with a lands officer to obtain ownership of the piece.
"The EACC has recovered a prime Government plot worth Kes30 million, which had been illegally and corruptly excised from public land adjacent to State House, Mombasa, by one Edward Mwangi Irungu, then a District Officer in Mombasa, in collusion with the then Commissioner of Lands Wilson Gachanja," party read the EACC's statement.
Justice Nelly Matheka of the Mombasa Environment and Land Court nullified all the transactions leading to the grabbing of the land in a ruling delivered on Wednesday, December 11.
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The land in question was meant for government staff before it was grabbed.
It was later sold to a hotel; Minalove Hotel & Restaurant Limited.
The anti-graft body established that the hotel later used the land as collateral in another loan transaction.
The judge sided with the EACC's submission that the land was not available for allocation to anyone for any purpose.
She therefore nullified all the terms of the agreement in the loan transaction.
"EACC investigations established that after illegally and corruptly acquiring the public land, the District Officer sold it to Minalove Hotel & Restaurant Limited, which used the title to secure a loan facility at Equity Bank," the EACC's statement added.
The lease registered in Mwangi's name was also cancelled, and so was the hotel's ownership.
"Having no title, the 2nd defendant could not have properly charged the property, and the charge registered under the title on 18th July 2013 is hereby cancelled," said the judge.
Both Mwangi and the hotel were ordered to pay Sh 5 million in damages "for wrongful interference with public land in an irregular, illegal and fraudulent manner."
The judge awarded the costs of the suit to the EACC.
