Disputed land belongs to Langata Road Primary School, declares Mohamed Swazuri

Kenya: The Langata Road Primary land under dispute belongs to the school, the Government has stated.

According to preliminary investigation by the Lands Ministry, the school has been the legal owner of the two-acre piece of land since 1974.

Speaking to journalists when he visited the site, the National Land Commission (NLC) boss Muhammad Swazuri said investigations by the officers from Lands Ministry unearthed two title deeds belonging to Airport View Housing Limited having been acquired in 1989 and 1994 though the titles are conflicting as one bears 0.6 hectares approximately 1 acre and 0.2 acres, translated to approximately below half an acre.

Mr Swazuri said the commission will review the titles in a bid to know who the real owners of the housing company are and how they managed to get the prime property as the Nairobi City County had lodged a complaint about developments in the piece of property.

The private developer claiming the land has erected a wall around the land near Weston Hotel.

But Swazuri said both the County and NLC will ensure that it is brought down before Monday.

“The preliminary reports show that the piece of property is a school play ground, belonging to Langata Road Primary School. We will be looking at the title deeds from Airport View Housing Limited to know if they have genuine titles or not, we will give them a chance before we can come up with a decision,” Swazuri said.

At the same time, startling allegations about those who are behind it came up with the area leaders claiming that a third party composed of two politicians claimed to own the play ground.

A Member of County Assembly, Alex Ouda, who was a pupil at the same school, said former Nairobi Mayor Geoffrey Majiwa and Makadara Member of Parliament Benson Mutura had been introduced in a meeting the MCA had with the school’s head teacher as co-owners of the piece of property.

Mr Ouda said the two are third parties in the plot, explaining that the investigations should be done to know the real owners of the housing company.

However, the unanswered questions are how and who in the Nairobi County transferred the property and the same individuals later complained about the same piece of land that had been transferred by its officers.

Swazuri said a majority of public lands, belonging to public schools did not have title deeds thus becoming an easy target for land grabbers. The review will be done on February 9.