Ministry on spot over loss of Sh10bn land
Environment and Forestry Principal Secretary Chris Kiptoo.
The Ministry of Environment and Forestry is on the spot over how a Sh10 billion public land under its custody was grabbed and irregularly subdivided and titles issued.
A report tabled in Parliament by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the National Assembly, shows that the ministry has been unable to account for a prime land that was under its custody, but whose ownership is said to have been transferred irregularly.
This comes even as MPs asked the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) to investigate the matter and recommend those criminally culpable for prosecution.
The details of the MPs’ actions are contained in the PAC report on the audited accounts of the ministry tabled in the House.
The land in question is 21 hectares named block/209/24794/81, located in Industrial Area, Nairobi. It belongs to the Kenya Meteorological Department that is under the ministry.
According to the PAC report, the land is said to have been subdivided into five parcels and titles issued in unclear circumstances, to five companies – Beacon Towers Ltd, Hillbrow Properties Limited, Brentwood Traders Limited, Pamba Properties Limited and Varun Industrial Credit Limited.
“Within three months of tabling and adoption of this report, the DCI should initiate investigations into this matter with a view to determining possible criminal culpability on the part of all concerned officers and take appropriate action in accordance with the law,” the PAC report on the ministry’s accounts for 2018/19 financial year, reads.
PAC, a watchdog committee of the House, is chaired by Ugunja MP Opiyo Wandayi.
The Ethics and Anti- Corruption Commission (EACC) went to court in 2009 to challenge the irregular acquisition of the land by the five companies.
On August 3, 2020, the Environment and Land Court Judge E.O Obaga revoked the five title deeds after it established that they were obtained fraudulently.
Justice Obaga’s ruling was not appealed but curiously, the Ministry of Forestry has not sued the directors of the five companies for the fraudulent acquisition of the public land.
When he appeared before the committee in February, Environment PS, Dr Chris Kiptoo, said that the ministry was yet to institute measures to recover the land even as he said that KMD has never lost possession of the land as a single parcel.
During the meeting, Dr Kiptoo and the ministry’s head of legal services, Ms Annie Syombua, confirmed to the committee that no criminal proceedings had been instituted against the grabbers and that they were not certain the ministry was planning to charge them.
“There is no prosecution yet,” said Dr Kiptoo despite the court determining that the title deeds were fraudulently obtained, with Ms Syombua adding; “The matter is criminal in nature but I am not aware if there is any case in court against the owners of the said companies.”
This came even as Ms Syombua confirmed to the committee that there is another attempt to grab the land.
She told the committee that Swing Investment Limited, a local company, has sued that ministry claiming ownership of the land.
The company may have explored the loophole by the ministry’s failure to charge the owners of the five companies that had forged title deeds to claim ownership of the land.
“There is another attempt to grab the land Mr chairman,” Ms Syombua had told the committee.
“An application was filed in court and this ministry was served the same. The matter is now with the Office of the Attorney-General,” she added in what could be an attempt by some elements of the five companies to challenge Justice Obanga’s ruling through another application in court as opposed to an appeal.
Following the ruling, President Uhuru Kenyatta issued an executive order that the land be handed over to the State Department for Housing for the Mukuru slum upgrading project.
The land currently houses a meteorological station, a transmitter and generators rooms, an office for the cfficer-in-charge and staff quarters.
The court judgement tabled before PAC, shows that the private companies had the 21.6 hectares land subdivided into portions of almost equal size and allocated themselves with title deeds to boot. Hillbrow Properties limited allocated itself 3.998 hectares with LR No. 209/13560 and Brentwood Traders limited 3.656 hectares LR No. 209/13561.
Pamba Properties limited had 2.968 hectares LR No. 209/13563, Varun Industrial Credit limited 6.259 hectares LR No. 209/13562 and Beacon Towers limited 4.731 hectares LR No. 209/13559.
