This archive report was first published on 29 June 2020.
Ngong Forest, once a 7,231-acre forest reserve, has shrunk to 1,330 acres due to land grabbing by politicians and state officials, Environment Cabinet Secretary Keriako Tobiko has revealed.
According to Tobiko, the land grabbers include current and former politicians, high-profile individuals, and corporations who sold the land to unsuspecting Kenyans.
Among those implicated in the scandal is Bahati MP Kimani Ngunjiri, who is said to have illegally acquired 18.24 acres of land.
Former Kiambaa MP Stanley Munga Githunguri and former Konoi MP Samuel Koech are also accused of grabbing 9.24 acres and 32 acres of land, respectively.
Major General Njoroge, a former member of the Kenya Forest Service (KFS) board, is said to have acquired a large parcel of land.
Churches such as Nairobi Chapel, Mugumoine PCEA Church, and St Francis ACK church have also been found to have acquired land in the forest.
“Members of Parliament themselves, both current and past, senior government functionaries. It is not the ordinary mwananchi and acquired the properties,” Tobiko said.
A total of 159 people own title deeds in the forest, and the government has asked them to surrender the documents as investigations continue.
Over 800 homes in Nairobi’s Lang’ata area could be brought down as the state readies to recover land it claims was grabbed from the forest.
