Nandi Governor, Stephen Sang has vowed to recover a parcel of land in Kapsabet Town, which was irregularly allocated to a private developer.
Governor Sang said the land situated in Namgoi area was meant for the Red Cross Society.
He claimed that it was grabbed by an individual through collusion with officials of the defunct Municipal Council of Kapsabet.
This, he said, was despite the Kenya Red Cross having gazetted the same plot for development.
The Governor decried the alacrity with which previous administrators disposed off several parcels of land earmarked for public utilities, without giving a thought to the needs of posterity.
“How do you grab land belonging to an organization like Red Cross, and when you find yourself in distress from natural calamities, you want to be assisted by the same humanitarian organisation which you disinherited?” quipped Sang.
Speaking during a press briefing on Friday outside his office in Kapsabet, when he was inaugurated as the County Red Cross patron, Sang said the recovery of the land will pave way for Red Cross to put up a disaster center in the County.
Plans by Kenya Red Cross to set up offices and a warehouse in Kapsabet, prior to 2010 aborted when the land reserved for the society was encroached into.
The humanitarian organisation has been operating from a single room office at the Kapsabet County Hospital, since late 1980s when it set foot in the county.
In March, this year, Kenya Red Cross came to the rescue of 585 households in Tinderet Constituency of Nandi County, who were displaced by landslides.
The society set up a temporary relief camp at Chereondo Primary school, where the floods victims were hosted for a month and given provisions.
Earlier in his office, Governor Sang and the Governor of Kenya Red Cross Society, Dr. Mohamud Said struck a partnership deal.
The deal will see the two entities collaborate in disaster risk reduction initiatives, mitigation of climate change effects and youth empowerment programmes in the county.
Dr. Said said the Red Cross Society Act had been amended to allow Governors to be incorporated in participating in the society’s humanitarian activities as county patrons.
“This is unlike in the past when only the President was recognized as the sole patron of the society countrywide.” Said said.
By Kizito Maruti
