Senate committee on lands in Trans Nzoia County has toured Kitale School on a fact- finding mission where the school land was grabbed by a private developer.
The school that had initially 55 ha of land out of which several ha has been grabbed by several individuals that was above 10 ha which one grabber Nathanel Tum is mentioned.
The committee is led by its chair Paul Gathomi, senator for Nyandarua with Philip Mpaayeiwas his vice chair who is also Kajiado senator together with area Senator Dr. Michael Mbito.
Among the petitions during the session that was petitioned by Kitale school alumni through their chair Mike Magero, ACK Church Bishop Emmanuel Chemengich learnt that the land grabber whom they mentioned as Dr Nathaniel Tum who was PTA Chair for the school for long took advantage of his confidential knowledge that the school did not have a title deed to unlawfully acquire the land.
That Mr. Tum did not apply for the said public land as there is no evidence to support his application letter nor has he provided any as such a letter would have involved the ministry of education, Kitale school management and the public and that would not have given him
any chance to acquire the public school land.
They pleaded with the committee to come to the rescue of the school land which they claimed was unprocedural allocated to the grabber claiming they have fought several battles in the efforts to restore the land.
The committee through its chair Paul Gathomi in its findings claimed it will leave no stones unturned promising to dig out all the facts gathered on the ground and that it will write a report of the same next week.
He blamed some land grabbers who amassed a lot of wealth through unlawful means claiming they will not be cowed by individuals who grab public land and that they will make sure all illegally grabbed land must be reposed an assertion that was supported by his vice chair who is also Kajiado County Philip Mpaayeiwas who noted that as the senators they stand to support devolution and that they will not be cowed by individuals of whatever nature in backtracking their efforts of realizing all grabbers pay for the evil deeds.
On his part Trans Nzoia senator Dr Michael Mbito claimed that there was a lot of land grabbing that happened by the same person mentioning the Mt Elgon hospital, Kephis land and KARI land that he claimed grabbed more than 100 acres of land.
“This man one Nathaniel Tum is a serial land grabber who has made harm than good for the residents of the county as he kept on amassing all the public land without caring for the coming generations I thank this committee for visiting this County and hope justice for people of Trans Nzoia will prevail”, stated Senator Mbito.
However Dr Nathaniel Tum explained how he acquired the land claiming he followed all the due processes in attaining the land from Kitale School claiming he was a resident of the county and Kenyan citizen who should own land in whatever part of the country.
Other leaders present were CAS for lands Alex Mburi, Trans Nzoia County Commissioner Sam Ojwang among other dignitaries.
