Senator Okiya Omtatah has accused the Busia County Government of engaging in a fraudulent scheme involving the attempted purchase of land at an inflated price of Ksh200 million.
In a statement on Wednesday, April 30, Omtatah described the move as grand corruption within the county administration.
He revealed that the land the officials are attempting to buy is a public property and it is already owned by the county government.
"The County Government of Busia wants to spend Ksh200 million to buy land it already owns, Amoni Market in Malaba Town, land worth only Ksh20 million.
"The land, which was validly registered as LR. No. South Teso/Osurete/964, has since been subdivided into 9 plots with new title deeds issued to proxies of county officials from the mother title," he said.
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Omtatah described the attempt as abuse of office and a betrayal of the people of Busia, calling on the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) to intervene.
"This is a classic case of abuse of office, theft of public resources, and betrayal of public trust. This is theft, not governance. I have formally notified EACC and will move to court to recover the land and protect public interest, asking the court to scrutinize and quash the fraudulent title deeds," he added.
Omtatah further demanded an immediate halt to any ongoing or planned transactions involving the land in question, insisting that the matter must be addressed transparently and urgently.
"Consequently, by this letter, I demand in no uncertain terms that the County Government of Busia should stop all the transactions on the Amoni Market Land. We must remain vigilant and call out theft of public resources and blatant fraud," he stated.
Omtatah noted that he will be heading to court seeking to have an irregular judgement and fraudulent title deeds quashed.
"I will soon file a case invoking the Environment and Land Court's supervisory jurisdiction under Articles 165(6) & (7) of the Constitution, as read together with Article 162(2).
"I will ask the court to safeguard the public interest by scrutinising and quashing the irregular judgment and the fraudulent fifle deeds," he concluded.
