Confusion reigns on ownership of disputed city school's land

National Land Commission (NLC) Chairman Mohamed Swazuri has said documents used by a private developer to lay claim to a portion of Langata Road Primary School are fake.

And Lands Cabinet Secretary Charity Ngilu has said the private developer on the disputed school land will be prosecuted if investigations reveal he grabbed it.

Speaking in Mombasa Monday, Ngilu said NLC was handling the matter and that those behind the grabbing will be arraigned in court.

Swazuri, who was with Ngilu, said investigations have revealed that the land belongs to the school and that it should be reverted to the institution's use.

"On Friday, we visited the school and want to reaffirm the land belongs to the school. Before our visit to the school, we had meaningful documents indicating it is a public land," said Swazuri.

He said the disputed land was amalgamated in 1974, with the original one that was allocated to the school in 1972 and an allotment letter issued to the institution in 1975.

"There is no way a person could have allocated the land in 1989 and issued it with the allotment letter in 1994. The documents to that effect were fake," said the NLC chairman.

At the same time, Swazuri said he had received a complaint exposing alleged grabbing of a section of Shauri Moyo Secondary in Nairobi, noting he will visit the institution this week.

Meanwhile, government officials gave contradictory signals regarding the ownership of the disputed land in Lang'ata Primary School.

Whereas Swazuri and Ngilu said preliminary findings had shown the land belongs to the school, the Nairobi County government gave a contrary view.

According to the County Chief Officer of Lands SG Mwangi, the land came about as a result of an amalgamation of two parcels- LR No 209/12256 and 209/11296/100. LR No 209/12256 was a grant to Airport View Housing Ltd of December 16, 1994. "LR No 20911296/100 resulted from the subdivision of LR No 11296, which was part of the existing Airport View Estate," said Mwangi in a letter dated January 14, 2015.

He added the title for LR No 209/12848 was registered on September 22, 2000 in the name of Airport View Limited and that LR No 209/12256 resulted from Commissioner of Land reference letter of September 6, 1995.

"From the foregoing, it is clear that the surveys for these properties was carried out at different times and are not related. The said parcels of land exist on the ground as per the respective surveys."

Mwangi said LR No 209/7996, which belongs to the school is a county property and was allocated to the Government by the defunct City Council of Nairobi.