Kenyatta and Moi accused of illegal land deals

Former presidents Kenyatta and Moi both grossly abused their powers to allocate land, according to the Ndung'u report on illegal land allocations.

They handed out far more land than the law ever intended, the report states.

Illegal allocations peaked during the tenure of President Moi who gave out land with the connivance of Lands PS Josiah Sang and two Lands Commissioners – Mr Wilson Gacanja and Mr Sammy Mwaita – it adds.

Now Kenya's presidents should be stripped of their power to allocate any land, the report states, and after the law has been changed a National Land Commission should be set up to handle all allocations.

Another hard hitting recommendation of the report, compiled by a commission chaired by Nairobi lawyer Paul Ndung'u, could see those people who acquired land illegally and their accomplices facing bankruptcy.

It recommends that all illegally acquired title deeds should be cancelled, and that the state should pursue the people who gained them to recover the billions of shillings they received. And then they should be prosecuted, the commissioners urge.

In a key passage dealing with former presidents Kenyatta and Moi, the report states on Page 80:

"The powers vested in the President to make grants of freehold or leasehold on unalienated government land have been grossly abused over the years both by the presidents and successive commissioners of lands and their deputies."

It continues: "The abuse of discretion in this regard occurred during both the regimes of former presidents Kenyatta and Moi.

Also named in the final report – handed to President Kibaki on July 2 but not so far made public – are Cabinet ministers, former top civil servants and politically correct people who were allocated land irregularly or bought it under questionable circumstances.

The big names feature in land carved out of farms owned by the Agricultural Development Corporation and from forests.

Others targeted for the recovery of billions of shillings include professionals, brokers and the original allottees of forests, public land, and state properties.

Those tasked to implement the recovery include the police – mainly the CID – the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission, and key ministries including the Office of the President. Others are the ministries of Roads and Public Works, Lands, Settlement and Housing, Local Government, Environment, Natural Resources and Wildlife and the Judiciary.

The 244-page report gives recommendations on urban, state corporations and ministries lands. It also includes settlement schemes, trust lands, forests, national parks, game reserves, wetlands, reserves or sites alongside rivers and lakes, protected areas, museums and historical monuments.

On all land which the commission found was irregularly allocated, it was recommended that title deeds be cancelled and those who sold it made to pay back the money.

And all such land taken back by the state should revert back to its original use or otherwise decided by the Government.

It was also recommended that companies set up as safe conduits to transact the land sales should be investigated.

In the case of road reserves, any development must be demolished, without exception.

Where the land was for public use and the local community decides it is not needed, the Government should cancel the title deed, the report states.

In such cases, new title deeds should be issued to the owner on new terms and the holder made to pay full value of the land.

In the meantime, any letter of allotment issued should be declared null and void. And in future, such letters should be issued strictly as an offer and expire in the two years provided by law.

Public officials who took part in irregular land allocations should be retired in the public interest. In addition, they should be prosecuted under the Anti-Corruption and Economic Crimes Act and the Penal Code.

Ministers and permanent secretaries who served on parastatals which lost land should also be punished.

The commission also makes a wide range of proposals that would enable the Government to implement its findings.

First, a Land Titles Tribunal should be set up to start revoking and correcting titles nationwide. The commission has attached a draft Bill to establish the tribunal, to the report.

All land records should be computerised so that double allocations – common in the past – do not happen again.

An insurance scheme should also be encouraged in which a consortium of insurance firms could secure title deeds. Such a move, the Ndung'u report suggests, would restore public confidence in land titles.