Two former governors and a retired senior government official now face the prospect of losing prime property along Lake Victoria after a court found them guilty of illegally encroaching on protected riparian land.
The Environment and Land Court in Kisumu has ordered former Nairobi governor Evans Kidero, his Kisumu counterpart Jack Ranguma, and former Environment Secretary Alice Kaudia to demolish structures built beyond their property boundaries in what marks a significant victory for environmental conservation efforts around Africa’s largest lake.
Justice Samson Okongo delivered the damning verdict on September 29, giving the trio 90 days to tear down walls and buildings erected within the Lake Victoria riparian reserve.
The ruling comes after a 12-year legal battle initiated by environmentalist Michael Nyaguti, chairman of the Magnam Environmental Network, who sued the three in 2013 for endangering the lake’s fragile wetlands.
The court established that all three defendants had extended fences around their beachfront properties well beyond their legally demarcated boundaries, swallowing up sections of the 30-metre riparian reserve meant to protect the lake ecosystem.
Nyaguti had warned that allowing such construction would deny communities and wildlife access to critical wetland resources while risking contamination of the lake with human waste.
The judgment followed a site visit in January 2025, when Justice Okongo and officials from the National Environment Management Authority inspected Ranguma’s home at Ngege Beach, Kidero’s land in Otonglo, and Kaudia’s property at Usoma Beach to assess the extent of encroachment.
In his ruling, Justice Okongo was unequivocal about the constitutional stakes involved.
He noted that residents living along Lake Victoria have a right to a clean and healthy environment under Article 42 of the Constitution, including access to public spaces for recreation, education, health, and cultural purposes.
The court ordered Ranguma to remove illegal perimeter walls extending beyond his two plots into the riparian reserve and demolish any structures built in the protected zone.
Kidero received similar orders, with the added directive to re-survey his land at his own expense and reopen a public access road he had blocked following an amalgamation process.
The judge also issued a permanent injunction barring the three from undertaking any activities or construction that would interfere with the Lake Victoria riparian reserve, either personally or through employees and agents.
Riparian land is defined under the Environmental Management and Coordination Act of 2006 as the area within 30 metres of the highest water level.
Additional protections come from the Water Act of 2002, the Agriculture Act, the Water Resource Management Act of 2007, and various environmental regulations.
The case highlights the persistent challenge of protecting Kenya’s water bodies from encroachment by the wealthy and politically connected.
The three defendants, all former public officials entrusted with protecting the environment, instead used their positions and resources to grab public land meant to safeguard one of Africa’s most important freshwater resources.
Nyaguti’s lawsuit had targeted not just the three individuals but also implicated regulatory bodies including Nema and the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources for failing in their oversight mandate.
The timing of the ruling is particularly striking. Even as the court deliberated, nature has been fighting back.
Rising water levels in Lake Victoria have been reclaiming territory, with backflow inundating some of the disputed plots in what seems like poetic justice.
The 90-day deadline now ticking means that by early January 2026, the illegal structures should be gone. Whether the three will comply or seek to appeal the decision remains to be seen.
But for now, the judgment sends a clear message that riparian land is not up for grabs, regardless of one’s political connections or wealth.
This ruling adds to growing momentum in Kenya’s fight against environmental degradation.
In May 2024, the government ordered demolitions of structures built illegally on riparian land in Nairobi, though enforcement has been selective and critics have accused authorities of protecting well-connected land grabbers.
For the communities living around Lake Victoria, the judgment offers hope that the law can still protect shared environmental resources from the greed of the powerful.
The lake, already under severe pressure from pollution, overfishing, and climate change, needs every metre of its riparian zone intact to survive.
The question now is whether this landmark ruling will spur broader action to reclaim riparian land across Kenya, or whether it will remain an isolated victory in a losing battle against environmental destruction.
