The Anchor

By Anchor Writers

A decisive High Court ruling has returned a prime parcel of land in Machakos Town to the public, marking a significant moment in the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission’s expanding asset recovery drive across the counties of Machakos, Kitui and Makueni.

At the centre of the case is Machakos Municipality Block 1/623, a property valued at about Ksh 50 million which was alienated fromand the compound of the official residence of the Sub-County Police Commander.

On January 16, 2026, Justice Nelly Matheka found that the land had been illegally alienated from the government and ordered that it be registered in the name of the Cabinet Secretary to the National Treasury, pursuant to Section 56C(2) of the Anti-Corruption and Economic Crimes Act.
The court’s order, which effectively extinguished any private claim to the land, affirmed the EACC’s long-running position that public property had been unlawfully converted for private use and could not be sanitised through belated claims of ownership.
Speaking today at the site of the grabbed land, EACC Director of Legal Services and Asset Recovery David Too said the Machakos decision exemplifies the Commission’s renewed emphasis on court-led restitution of public assets.

Pointing at the godown that defiantly stands in the compound, Mr Too noted that the recovered land forms part of a wider portfolio of properties the Commission is pursuing in the three counties, with a combined estimated value of Ksh 363 million.
Among the assets under litigation are 13 parcels of land belonging to the Kenya Prisons Service in Machakos Town, valued at approximately Ksh 60 million, which the Commission says were similarly irregularly allocated.
The Machakos parcel had been claimed by businessman and contractor Mutuku Muia, who argued that it formed part of his inheritance from his father, the late Peter Muia Ndunda, a former Mayor of Machakos.

That assertion, however, collapsed under scrutiny. Evidence before the court showed that the land remained government property and had been unlawfully allocated to private individuals.
Muia had even commenced construction of a godown on the site—located opposite Sartaj Building where Utalii Road meets the Machakos–Kangundo Road—before the EACC moved in to stop the works five years ago and institute recovery proceedings.

The court’s ruling has now brought that dispute to a close, firmly restoring the land to the public.
Mr Too said the judgment sends a clear message that neither political pedigree nor claims of inheritance can override the law where public resources are concerned.

He added that asset recovery has become a central pillar of the Commission’s third strategic plan covering the period 2023–2028, with courts playing a critical role in dismantling decades-old schemes of illegal land allocation.
The Machakos ruling, he said, is not an isolated event but part of a sustained legal offensive to reclaim public land and property across the three counties.

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