President Uhuru Kenyatta on 20 November 2018 said the government would move to recover grabbed public land across the country, warning occupiers to surrender the parcels before enforcement begins.
Speaking in Mombasa during the launch of the Kenya Coast Guard Service, he said private developers had taken over public land, including fish landing sites at the Coast and around Lake Victoria. He said the state would not negotiate endlessly with land grabbers.
“We shall not plead with land grabbers to return public land. They must do so immediately before we embark on an exercise to reclaim them forcefully,”
Uhuru said the National Land Commission and the Fisheries department had been directed to recover the plots before March the following year. He also said the Liwatoni jetty, where the Kenya Coast Guard Service headquarters has been established, had been grabbed by One Holding Limited but was returned to the government.
“I wish to thank One Holding Limited for voluntarily returning Liwatoni to the government for its rightful use,” he said.
The President used the same event to caution Cabinet secretaries and other government officials against laxity and an obsession with publicity. He said ministers should spend more time on delivery and less on media attention.
“The Cabinet secretaries must leave their offices and get to work. They should not be obsessed with media coverage and publicity for whatever they do. We want to see them on the ground doing what they are supposed to do as public servants,”
Uhuru said he had been able to commission the Coast Guard Service with limited resources and urged CSs to show similar commitment. He also signed two Executive Orders creating the Bandari Maritime College and the Kenya Fishing Industry Corporation.
He said the Kenya Coast Guard Service, the Kenya Fishing Industry Corporation and the Bandari Maritime Academy would help revive the maritime sector and allow Kenya to tap into more than Sh10 billion it had been losing every year through the blue economy.
The launch was attended by Deputy President William Ruto and Coast governors Hassan Joho of Mombasa, Granton Samboja of Taita Taveta, Fahim Twaha of Lamu, Dhado Godana of Tana River and Salim Mvurya of Kwale, alongside legislators and Cabinet secretaries.
The Coast Guard Service was established under the Kenya Coast Guard Service Act, 2018, as a multi-agency security service tasked with enforcing law and order in Kenya’s territorial waters and improving protection of maritime resources.
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