Ndung’u faults State’s resolve on land reforms

Busia

By Karanja Njoroge

The Government has no intention of implementing the entire Ndung’u Report on irregular land allocations, lawyer Paul Ndung’u, who chaired the Ndung’u Commission, has said.

He said his team discovered more than 200,000 illegal or irregular title deeds created and registered between 1963 and 2002. He said though the Government appears reluctant to implement the recommendations in the structured manner spelt out by his commission, this must not discourage those who want to end impunity and corruption.

He said the public should continue to remind the Government all public lands illegally allocated to Kenyans must be recovered.

Provoking deeds

He was addressing a public forum at a Nakuru that debated on ‘Implementing the Recommendations of the Ndung’u Land Report’. He said to have the title deeds revoked under the existing laws would take centuries due to protracted court cases.

Mr Paul Ndung’u architect of the Ndung’u Report on irregular land allocations addresses a public forum in Nakuru, Friday. [PHOTO: BONIFACE THUKU/STANDARD]

"It is only the High Court that has the powers to revoke a title deed. Therefore if a deed were each to be dealt with by the High Court, and assuming, it would take two years, then it would probably take centuries for all the disputes to be solved," Ndung’u said.

He said to have the issues expedited, his commission recommended Government Lands Act to be amended to provide for the establishment of a Land Titles Tribunal.

Ndung’u said in the last two to three years, the Government through the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission, has dilly-dallied in recovering illegally allocated public properties.

He, however, said some of theses cases have been stuck in courts for years while others have been immobilised by constitutional references.

Ndung’u said two of the recommendations on which Government is acting on are the formulation and adoption of a national Land Policy and the digitalisation of land records.

Meanwhile, stakeholders in the land sector are putting pressure on the Government expedite the implementation of the national Land Policy, approved recently by the Cabinet.

Non-state actors in the land sector and members of the public said they would not relent in the pursuit to have the policy implemented.

The participants of the forum, The forum, organised by the Kenya Land Alliance in partnership with Africa Centre for Open Governance, called for post independence polices to be reviewed.

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