Curb graft in land deals

One area in the public sector that is notorious for corruption is the lands department. There is not a single report on graft that has not listed the lands offices, which are synonymous with the menace.

The establishment of the National Land Commission (NLC) some years ago was meant to ease the burden on the Ministry of Lands but it appears to have entrenched the vices through which billions of shillings in public funds are lost every year.

A special inquiry by the Office of the Auditor-General has established that the public may have lost Sh14 billion through suspicious payments endorsed by the NLC.

This is hardly surprising. In fact, it could just be a drop in the ocean since the audit did not cover the entire Sh22 billion that was spent by seven agencies to compensate landowners in three years.

The racket in the lands offices is so lucrative that it has defied efforts by various commissions to streamline operations and eradicate the endemic corruption. Land is a major asset as a means of production and collateral for use to obtain funds to carry out projects. Cartels seeking to benefit from this easily entrench themselves and influence irregular deals, to the detriment of the rightful owners or beneficiaries.

Past audits have exposed inflated or double compensation in the acquisition of land for public use. In some of the cases, payments have been made without proper evaluation reports. The standard gauge railway (SGR), the biggest infrastructure development since Independence, has also been dogged by graft claims over which top NLC officials have been arraigned.

The efforts of the key state agencies involved in the development of national infrastructure, especially roads, will be hampered unless the officials tackle corruption head-on. The rent-seeking officials must not be allowed to derail projects meant for the public good.