The new sheriff in town, Nairobi Metropolitan Service director-general Mohammed Badi, lived up to his promise to reclaim grabbed public land in the city when he stopped construction of a private property along 3rd Parklands Avenue.
Accompanied by area MCA Jayendra Malde, Westlands MP Timothy Wanyonyi and police officers, Badi, who was dressed in full military wear, stormed the site on Monday, forcing workers to flee for their lives.
Addressing area residents, Badi said his office had reclaimed the piece of land from a private developer and construction of a public hospital will begin soon. He said the land will be given back to the ministry of health next week.
“Hapa sasa ni kwenu (this is now your place),” Badi told the locals.
The successful recovery of the land with an estimated value of Ksh2 billion comes after the area MCA had sent a letter to Badi on April 27, 2020, informing him of the ongoing construction of high-rise apartments on the grabbed High Ridge Dispensary land.
MCA Malde said he had written several letters to the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) and the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) over the matter but no decisive action had been taken.
Following Badi’s successful intervention, the elated MCA said: “After all these fights, we have our Highridge Clinic back.”
Westlands MP added: “We toured the place today and as we have said several times this land was grabbed…we are happy Director General has come and assured us that it will be taken back to the public and next week we shall be here again to witness the same.”
‘‘Let me warn them(land cartels) that this is just a start if you know you are a grabber then start packing it will be business unusual we have marked you.”
