When officials of the National Lands Commission (NLC) took oath of office on February 20, 2013, Kenyans hoped sanity in land administration was within reach.
A year later however, the Mohammad Swazuri-led team became a vortex of controversy in its handling of compulsory land acquisitions and compensation. In fact, confidence in NLC fell flat after it became apparent that some commissioners were getting their hands grubby with filthy lucre.
Even after the courts and Parliament ensured a synergy between NLC and Ardhi House, staff in its top echelons quickly became captives of vested interests. The NLC list of shame began swelling. It started with errors in drafting rules to address the scars of land injustices.
Then there was the Nairobi-Mombasa SGR Phase I land payout that led to the prosecution of chairman Swazuri. On August 13, last year, Swazuri and 16 co-accused denied conspiring to defraud the State. At the height of the charges, Swazuri claimed his deputy, Abigael Mbagaya, had irregularly taken up his job. Around the same time, crucial compensation records went missing from NLC headquarters. And this week, investigations began into claims by a church that an NLC official sought a Sh200 million bribe before processing compensation for land surrendered for SGR Phase IIA. This is on top of unacceptable delays in compensation for hundreds others.
Just yesterday, details emerged on how NLC handed DP William Ruto the privilege of paying up for developing an illegally acquired public land on Lang’ata Road, Nairobi. The Ruto issue exposed NLC’s opaque modus operandi and double-standards in reclaiming grabbed public land, condemned as setting a bad precedent..
We call on NLC officials to take responsibility for their failures and live up to their oath. There’s more than meets the eye when a key State agency gets mired in graft and toxic internecine wars.
A few NLC officials did a good job and we commend them. However, the end of the nine-member team’s tenure on February 19 now offers an opportunity to constitute a more competent team to manage public land on behalf of national and county governments. Land is a key resource whose management must be prudent.
