Grabbing of school land extends beyond Lang'ata Road

A 2014 audit report by the Nairobi County Government shows that the recent land grab saga pitting Lang’ata Road Primary school against a cabal of private developers is only the tip of the iceberg of the tribulations facing public institutions countrywide.

The damning report shows that school heads are facing an assault from two fronts; greedy developers and property flippers out to make a quick buck on one hand, and on the other, expansionist bids from school sponsors in the form of religious or non-governmental organisations electing to use school land for different purposes.

The group reviewed data from the valuation unit to ascertain the status of public primary schools’ land with respect to acreage, locality, user and registration status. At the end of the exercise, about 50 learning institutions in the city were found to be under threat.

It was observed that one out of every ten schools visited had a complaint on encroachment either by private developers, religious organisations and/or illegal settlements.

In cahoots with rogue developers, school administrators, religious organisations and corrupt county employees, huge parcels of land have either been hived off from a number of schools or leased out under dubious circumstances through bending of laws.

Bad experiment

“Religious institutions sometimes come in the guise of assisting schools to put up facilities such as toilets, but later ask to be allowed to use part of school land, which they eventually acquire in collaboration with the authorities,” reads part of the report.

City Primary School along Murang’a Road, with authorisation from City Hall, reached a leasing agreement with Prayers Beyond Boundaries Ministries, which was subsequently allocated a section of the school’s playground and put up a church.

“All dealings were handled by City Hall and I must say they kept me in the loop regarding the goings on at the school,” says the school headmistress, Rose Mbaya.

She says the lease with the church was strictly for two years—November 2013 to November 2015.

“We do not want to renew it after it expires,” Mbaya says.

The main dome of the church was put at one end of the school playing ground where there used to be a disused swimming pool.

“The swimming pool had not been used for many years and street families had colonised that end of the property,” explains the headmistress.

However, Ngara’s Member of County Assembly Chege Mwaura says it was a mistake for the council to agree to a lease that was disadvantageous to the school.

“The process was irregular. This lease should not be renewed. This is a bad experiment. The church is already in breach of the initial agreement,” Mwaura says.

According to the lease, among the things that the church was to do was put up a perimeter wall around the school to demarcate its property. This has not been done to completion.

Lease agreement

For that prime piece of land, measuring almost an acre, the church managed to negotiate a deal of Sh50,000 a year rent with the council. In exchange, the church was meant to complete a perimeter wall around the school, plant trees and flowers and reconstruct a swimming pool.

These obligations and more were recorded in a communication between the school and the church dated January 29, 2013. A visit to the school by The Standard on Sunday showed that the swimming pool in question was still in disrepair a year after the signing of the lease agreement.

In other situations, individuals who, after collaborating with Ministry of Lands officials, learn of the lack of a title deed in the name of an institution, seek court orders claiming part of the land and bar the school from further use or development of the contentious parcel.

Among those affected is Kabiria Primary School, which, in a written submission, accused a former politician of hiving off 3.46 acres off its initial 10.3 acres.

Ngong Forest Primary School also raised the alarm, with school administrators on several occasions sighting strangers on their school grounds, surveying it. The school borders Ngong Forest, and the demarcation between the school land and forest land was unclear.

Kibra’s Olympic Primary School has also reported gross grabbing of its school land by developers.

Uhuru Gardens Primary School, Our Lady of Mercy Primary School Shauri Moyo as well as Kamukunji Secondary School have all reported loss of part of their land to unscrupulous dealers.

In other instances,there are land disputes between schools and religious organisations.

Kinyanjui Road Primary School is one such institution. Complainants accused the Presbyterian  Church of East Africa of moving into the school premises, acquiring part of the land and then proceeding to build another school.

At Riruta Primary School, The Revival Church has a court order issued in 2006 claiming part of the school land. The court order has stopped any development in the school.

In Madaraka Primary School, Agape Church has been accused of encroaching onto school land with the aid of a letter of authorisation from the City Planning Department.

Other complaints have been put forth by different schools with regard to their land. For instance, in October of 2013, Highridge Secondary School in Parklands wrote a letter of complaint to Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero, alleging misuse of the school’s ground by a nearby shopping mall. 

“I would like to humbly bring your attention that Highridge Secondary School is going through a very difficult time... The mall owners have instructed their shoppers to park in our school compound for 24 hours at the weekend and for the whole night on Fridays.

“This is because the mall had earlier obtained an agreement from the defunct City Council of Nairobi to park in the school for a period of one year, renewable for five years,” reads the letter from the school.

Vested interests

The school has male and female boarding students.

“Askaris from the mall stop our students from playing football because they want their clients to park their cars,” reads the letter. “Furthermore, those who use the parking relieve themselves on the school grounds.”

When the school administrators eventually denied the mall owners access to their grounds, they were promptly sued for breach of contract.

At one point, according to the school, the case file went missing.

Just as with City Primary School, Leo Investments Limited, managers of  mall, paid an annual fee of Sh50,000 to the City Council for use of the school grounds.

However, the City Hall education taskforce report worryingly notes that as their investigations went on, some staff at the County Lands Department were not willing to volunteer information due to ‘vested interests’.