Government Reclaims Ksh.35 Million Bungoma Land After EACC Court Victory

 

By Brad Mukopi 

The government has successfully reclaimed a prime piece of land in Bungoma Town valued at more than Ksh.35 million, following a decisive court ruling in favour of the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC).

The contested property, located in the Milimani area next to the Bungoma State Lodge, had been illegally acquired and occupied by Judith Nekoye, a senior banking official, who has now been evicted in accordance with court orders.

In a judgment delivered on October 9, 2025, Justice Enock Cherono of the Environment and Land Court in Bungoma declared that all transactions leading to Nekoye’s acquisition of the property were “fraudulent, illegal, null and void ab initio.”

Justice Cherono further directed the Bungoma Land Registrar to cancel all records and registration documents associated with the illegal lease and restore the land to the State Department for Housing and Urban Development.

“The registration of all the entries related to the issuance of the Certificate of Lease purported to have been issued on 24th October 2016 to the Plaintiff in respect of Bungoma Township/169 be hereby cancelled,” ruled Justice Cherono.

The ruling followed a legal battle between the EACC and Nekoye, during which the commission proved that the land—originally reserved by the government in 1961 for the construction of civil servants’ quarters—had been irregularly transferred into private hands.

Court documents revealed that the property, which hosted House No. HG/15, was part of government housing stock and was never available for sale or reallocation. Investigations by the EACC established that Nekoye acquired the land in 2016 through a series of fraudulent transactions stemming from a flawed allocation in favour of Charles Osioma Nyasani, a former civil servant.

Justice Cherono also noted that the required Part Development Plan (PDP) and Registry Index Map (RIM) for the parcel were nonexistent, rendering the lease procedurally defective and illegal.

The EACC hailed the ruling as a major step in its ongoing efforts to recover public property unlawfully acquired by private individuals.

“This judgment underscores the Commission’s commitment to protecting public assets and ensuring that government land remains in the hands of the people,” said an EACC spokesperson following the verdict.