By Ally Jamah

Over 12,000 missing files were recovered at the Lands Ministry after PS Dorothy Angote made a surprise visit at Ardhi House.

Commissioner of Lands Zablon Mabea yesterday said officials finished counting the missing files and returned them to the records office for further analysis.

Mabea said he expected the number of recovered files to go up as the search continued in other ministry offices.

On March 1, operations at Ardhi House, the headquarters of the Lands Ministry, were temporarily disrupted when Ms Angote searched some of the "missing files".

She caught many staffers flatfooted, as hundreds of files supposed to be in the records office were found in their desks, some dating back to 1995.

"They have been using these files to demand huge bribes from the public for their files to be recovered," said Angote.

Warning letters

The Deputy Co-ordinator of the Kenya Land Alliance Catherine Gatundu lauded the operations but urged that it be extended to lands registries countrywide.

"We also need to know how many files are actually missing from the records of the ministry for us to know which files have not been recovered," she said.

The PS estimated that if corruption is eliminated at the ministry, revenue would triple from the current Sh6 billion yearly.

Mabea said staffers found holding files illegally had been issued with warning letters, but a source at the ministry said a major reshuffle of officials would follow.

The Lands Ministry is in the process of computerising its records.