Time to act on shady land-buying companies

The latest directive by the National Land Commission Chairman Muhammad Swazuri that all land-buying companies that have bought land and have already settled their members be dissolved is a step in the right direction.

Understandably, no other issue in Kenya elicits so much anger, fear and violence as disputes over ownership of land.

Many directors of land-buying companies, after sub-dividing land and allocating members their shares are left in the office where they engage in unscrupulous land deals. They indulge in double allocation of plots while charging exorbitant transfer fees.

Worse still, others solicit contributions from the public, embezzle their monies before vacating office.

Sadly, most of public land has been sold in unclear circumstances to opulent private developers by some directors, hence historical land injustices. Unsurprisingly, Ndung’u and TJRC reports on land injustices are gathering dust in the archives.

It is in the public interest that directors of land buying companies who have outlived their usefulness be sent home to mitigate rampant land injustices. In fact, those bogus and briefcase companies should be disbanded. All land buying companies should be registered with NLC to deter further illegal collection of funds from gullible and innocent public.