National Land Commission (NLC) chairman Mohammed Swazuri, Kenya Railways Corporation Managing Director Atanas Maina have been granted bail by the anti-corruption court. They were released on Kshs 6 million bond and cash bail of Kshs 3.5 million. The two, along other 12 co-accused were charged with corruption-related cases leading to the loss of Kshs 221,375,000 million in the acquisition of parcels of land for the construction of the standard gauge railway.
According to the DPP, the EACC received information involving NLC, Kenya Railways Corporation, and Ministry of Lands and Physical Planning, touching on the fraudulent acquisition of public property and other related corrupt activities. Following the report, the Commission embarked on investigations which established the Ministry of Lands irregularly allocated and registered parcels of land situated on the railway reserve.
NLC officials, aware of the fact, proceeded to illegally award and compensate the entities and persons in whose favour the fraudulent registration had been done. The DPP noted the KRC actively participated in the entire process of compensation undertaken for and on the behalf of NLC. Swazuri and other officials were arrested on Saturday and were held at the EACC offices at integrity centre.
They were arraigned in court on Monday morning where they denied the charges. The court didn’t find any reason not to grat the accused bails, and magistrate Lawrence Mugambi cited the rights of accused persons in the constitution which provides for release of accused persons on reasonable terms in the absence of compelling reasons not to do so.