The government has declared war on land brokers and their accomplices in the ministry of lands who are defrauding unsuspecting members of the public of their inheritance in Siaya county.
The county commissioner Michael ole Tialal has decried high incidents where people were losing their inheritance at the hands of a cartel that consist of errant government officials in the area.
Addressing this year’s Mashujaa Day celebrations at the Kenya Medical Training College grounds in Siaya town Tuesday, Tialal said that ninety percent of murder cases in the county were as a result of lands issues.
He said several residents of the county have fallen prey to the cartel that targets land whose registered owners died years back, but their families were yet to formally file for succession and only come to realize that things are bad when strangers invade their land.
The county commissioner said that the cartel consisted of errant lands registry staff, national government administrators and even some law enforcement staff.
“As the county security committee, we are asking members of the public who have lost their inheritance through dubious means to get in touch so that we could have the titles revoked and reverted back to the original owners,” he said.
On security, Tialal deplored the rising cases of stock theft in Gem, Ugunja and Siaya sub counties and called on the public to help weed out criminals by working closely with the security agents.
On his part, governor Cornel Rasanga, in a speech read on his behalf by the county secretary, Joseph Ogutu called on the local residents to continue observing the Covid-19 protocols, adding that the area has of late recorded increasing numbers of positive cases.
He said that since the beginning of the pandemic, the county has had a cumulative number of 123 confirmed cases, five of whom lost their lives.
“Currently, there are 35 Covid-19 active cases, with 34 being managed in home based isolation at their homes and one patient being managed at Bondo sub county hospital isolation unit,” he said.
During the occasion, former boxer, Kenneth ‘Valdez” Ochieng and ex-Cricket international Ken Obuya were awarded heroes medals for their past exploits that brought the country glory.
By Philip Onyango
