Kenya's Most Authoritative Political Newspaper

Citizen Weekly

Sunday 3 May 2015

Cartel takes control of Kisumu county office

Investors and developers in real estate business in Kisumu county are up in arms against a cartel that has been frustrating them demanding huge amounts of money as kickbacks before getting approval of building plans.
Speaking to Weekly Citizen on strict condition of anonymity, the developers accused the ministry of Lands Kisumu physical planning officer John Simiyu and the Kisumu county director of planning Evelyn Otieno of running a cartel that allegedly extorts money before making approvals.
Kisumu developers are now a frustrated lot as the cartel demands between Sh100,000 and Sh300, 000 before approving building plans. Interestingly, Simiyu has been working in the same office for the last 20 years and has been bragging that the national director of physical planning Augustine Masinde is his personal friend and cannot dare transfer him from Kisumu.
Investigations reveal that the department of physical planning Ardhi House Kisumu is a den of corrupt employees where cases have been pending for over a year awaiting approval simply because the owners are not ready to part with the huge amounts of bribes demanded by the two officers.
Kisumu county and its environs have been experiencing housing problems and accusing fingers are being pointed towards the two officers who have been frustrating developers. They are now calling on the acting Lands minister Fred Matiang’i to take quick action and transfer all the officers in the physical planning department in order to break the cartel that has frustrated them for years.

No comments:

Post a Comment