NLC taken to task over delays on historical land injustices

NLC Chairman, Gerishon Otachi says they are undertaking investigations into land injustices in Mombasa. [File, Standard]

The National Lands Commission (NLC) has been taken to task by the Senate over its delay in investigating historical land injustices.

Lands, Environment and Natural Resources Committee questioned why a petition filed in 2021 was yet to get any response.

Among the pending complaints is one of land injustices in Mombasa, illegal alienation of land in Kiambu, and injustices against community members living in Olderkesi in Narok West.

And in a petition filed at the Senate, Robin Muchondi, on behalf of Marungu residents in Mwanda Taita Taveta County, says they are facing eviction from their ancestral land due to unscrupulous dealings between the church, Lands officials, and the current and former administrators.

Muchondi further claims that in 2007, the Holy Rosary Catholic Church requested the elders to be allocated land for an orphanage and a church.

The elders donated 75 acres, but on the site identification day, the chief directed that 1,000 acres be set aside.

“Since the year 2007, there has not been a meeting of the elders and the authorities to identify the 1,000 acres for the mission nor the initial 75 acres,” reads the petition.

The community alleges that in 2009, the area chief together with church officials brought a surveyor and excised the 1,000 acres, but the demarcation was not done since people were already living there.

But in 2019, the mission constructed a church and in 2021, the Ministry of Lands set up Ngoloki Adjudication Scheme.

The petitioners say the adjudication omitted approximately 1,000 acres for the reason that the land is titled in favour of the Catholic mission.

NLC Chairman, Gerishon Otachi, said the commission was undertaking investigations, explaining that the claim was filed in September, 2021.

“The claim is among many others in the country currently undergoing investigations, including independent research on the issues at play and getting pertinent information from government agencies before the parties are called for a hearing,” he said.

But Otachi’s response irked the legislators. Nominated Senator Mariam Omar wondered that criteria the commission uses since some of the matters have been pending for years.

Otachi said the process involves screening of thousands of documents. “We have also dealt with tens of thousands of documents. We are actively involved in the investigations and inquiry of the land in question,” he said.