NLC starts reviewing controversial Lamu land documents

NAIROBI, KENYA: The National Land Commission will today start reviewing documents on the controversial 22 parcels of the 500,000 acres of land in Lamu County that have been contested. 

The directors of the companies will be taken through a quasi-judicial process at Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC) for the truth on the ownership. 

The commission will interrogate the documentation to find out if indeed the land was legally acquired or not so that as a result of that interrogation, the commission can make a determination. 

NLC CEO Tom Chavangi says the hearings will be open to the public and would make the basis of which the commission would decide whether or not to write to the Chief Lands Registrar for the revocation of the titles. 

This follows complaints started by the Executive and request to revoke some grants and title deeds. 

The land, whose titles president Kenyatta ordered revoked, were issued between 2011 and 2012 and was for strategic reasons in preparations for the Lamu Port and South Sudan Ethiopia Transport (LAPSSET) Corridor project. 

The president directed the revocation of the titles of 22 companies and asked to start immediate investigations. 

NLC chairman Muhamad Swazuri said they were also gong through the documents from other areas Nairobi, Kakamega, Nakuru, Kilifi, Machakos, Embu, Kisumu, Trans Nzoia and Mombasa. 

Other parcels are in Kilifi, Machakos, Embu, Kisumu and Trans Nzoia Counties.