Military land grabbed by private developers

By Lucianne Limo

Lands Minister James Orengo has revealed that huge chunks of land belonging to the military have either been privately acquired or encroached.

The minister told the Parliamentary Committee on Defence and Foreign Relations on Tuesday that large portions of land owned by the defence forces in Embakasi, Karen, Eldoret and Archers Post have been grabbed by private developers.

The committee expressed concern that the encroachment of military land posed a great threat to national security and asked the minister to furnish them with a comprehensive report on status of land owned by the defence forces.

Orengo, who was accompanied by senior officers from the Lands Ministry, had been summoned by the House committee to brief them on the status of land owned by the military that was clearly demarcated and fenced.

Orengo however said Government does not have an inventory of public land in relations to military or public land.

　

Null and void

He pointed out that the military has 51 stations countrywide, as it existed under the old dispensation, was assigned a total acreage of 584,343 hectares with the largest portion in Rift Valley, followed by North Eastern, Coast, Western and Nairobi.

"To determine the number of acreage is a massive exercise. The report we have does not capture all the 51 stations as we were not been able to identify military stations in Nyanza," he told the Wajir MP Adan Keynan-led committee.

The minister asked the committee to give them two weeks to compile a comprehensive report that would show a clearer picture of what land belongs to the military.

But Orengo said in their preliminary report, 87 hectares situated in Embakasi allocated to the military by the City Council was sold to a private developer.

"The land belonged to the military and, therefore, land reserved for public use can never be subject to private alienation. The title is null and void," he said.

He said it was unfortunate that private developers acquired the land for free and proceeded to sell the same to Government.

The minister also cited military land in Karen where parts of it were hived out and fraudulently given to a priest to set up a children’s orphanage in 1992.

At Archers Post, Orengo told the committee that large portions of land had been encroached by the local community who had already built permanent structures like schools, hospitals and homes.

Orengo said the military should be given alternative land instead of relocating the community because the venture would be too expensive.