Baringo CEC lands, housing, and urban development Robert Ruto has given land grabbers seven days to vacate their land in a bid to open up and clean up the major towns across the county for development purposes.
Mr Ruto made the remarks at an inspection exercise during the grading, of illegal structures in a bid to open up roads at Kabarnet town, Baringo Central Sub-County, on Tuesday and was accompanied by the town administrator, Julius Bwolei.
“We have around 5,000 illegally acquired pieces of land and we have put the grabbers on notice and we have brought on board stakeholders to recover this land and create more green spaces in these towns,” Ruto said.
Ruto added that illegal structures on road reserves would be demolished and residents who had rubbed marks for demolition would be taken to court, noting that the recent fire outbreak was a wakeup call to clean up the towns to avert future tragedy.
In addition, the CEC clarified that the illegally acquired pieces of land set aside for a mortuary and building of a court in Marigat town, Baringo South Sub-County were in the process of recovery as they had involved the National Land Commission and EACC in the process.
On the sewerage and drainage issues that have been a serious problem in the town, the CEC said plans were underway to put in place a fully-fledged sewer as they had identified 30 acres of land in the Kerio Valley Belt that would be ideal for it.
“In the next two years, Kabarnet town will no longer have a sewer problem, as we will start the second phase of the construction of a solid waste disposal system in addition to the one in Kaptimbor,” he added.
Ruto said the county government was in the process of procuring more exhausters to facilitate solid waste disposal and mitigate the effects of pollution.
Bwolei said unauthorised buildings would be demolished and the roads in the middle of the towns would be murrowed and later tarmacked to enable ease of doing business.
“I want to urge residents to respect the laws, rules and regulations of the government to avoid breaking the law,” Bwolei warned.
Cynthia Cherotich a nominated MCA commended the county government for the efforts to clean up the town, as it would open up the town for business and investors.
By Caroline Cherono
