No respite as City Hall land office remains closed, four months later

NAIROBI, KENYA: Residents of Nairobi will have to wait longer to access services at City Hall’s land office following uncertainty over when investigations that led to its abrupt closure will be concluded.

The office has been closed for four months following an order from the county executive to allow time for a probe into cases of fraud in the department. This has hampered provision of essential services.

The Urban Planning and Lands Office deals with regularisation of property, approval of building plans and advertisements.

Last Tuesday, members of the County Assembly Public Accounts Committee (PAC) asked acting County Secretary Leboo Morintat to explain why the office had been closed without notice.

“It is sad that the public cannot access services from the lands office. We demand to know who ordered the closure of the offices,” said PAC chairman Wilfred Odalo.

Problems began when the Auditor General’s latest audit sought to know why the Komarock Ward office and a playground in the same area had been sold to a private developer. The report also questioned why Mutuini Hospital was not fenced, subjecting it to the risk of being grabbed.

Acting Chief Lands Officer Cecilia Wangari said the land and offices in dispute in Komarock had been allocated to the developer by the defunct Nairobi City Council. However, she could not produce any evidence to authenticate her claims, saying the documents had been locked up in the lands office and she could not access them.

She claimed she did not know who had closed the office.

Karen MCA David Mberia said the PAC members were unable to access documents in the office.

“There is something sinister about the closure of that office for four months now because we know crucial documents are stored in there,” he said.

But Mr Morintat defended the closure, saying there were ongoing criminal investigations that warranted it. He said the office was closed after Governor Mike Sonko suspended 50 senior City Hallofficers, among them former Chief Lands Officer, Stephen Mwangi.

Morintat said he was not sure when the office would be opened “as there are still investigations into criminal cases going on”.

He said the cases included illegal acquisition of land. He singled out a case involving Mwariru Market, which allegedly had two title deeds. The county secretary said the closure had allowed the county government to retrieve the original title thus enabling construction of the market to begin.

Nominated MCA June Ndegwa asked why there were never consultations over the closure of the office, adding it was wrong as land cases could take up to 10 years to resolve. Moses Ogeto, the Kilimani ward rep, said city residents should not continue bearing the brunt of the delay caused by the probe.

Morintat promised to allow PAC members to access the office but did not say when it would be opened to the public.

“I was not aware that the committee needed access to documents in the office,” he said, adding he would have to consult over when the office could be opened to the public.