Beware of 'Xmas' council properties

Most municipalities countrywide are on a roll selling properties at throwaway prices, thanks to the Christmas season. The assets that are on sale in over 80 per cent of 175 local authorities include land, houses, schools, health centres, vehicles and graders.

Most prospective investors could have already spent fortunes or borrowed loans to secure the property. Unfortunately, the assets on disposal by the local authorities are what property investors must avoid like plague this festive season.

First, the councils are in a rush to make hay while the sun shines following fears they would be abolished after the next general elections as per provisions in the new Constitution.

Furthermore, Kenya Anti Corruption Commission (Kacc) has now raised a red flag that the ‘freebies’ are illegal. According to the anti-graft agency, council officials involved in the on-going sale of the lucrative public assets risk corruption charges.

KACC Director during the recent aquistion of some houses in Woodley Estate. [PHOTO: evans habil/standard]

Unknown to most buyers, majority of the buildings on sale — others already bought — sit pretty on road reserves due for expansion.

Illegal

Kisumu, Yala, Nakuru, Mombasa, Narok and Kisii are among councils leading in the on-going irregular disposals, according to Kacc Director Dr Patrick Lumumba. The Local Government ministry recently wrote to the municipalities warning against disposing off assets without its approval.

Paradoxically, local authorities have been holding meetings to regularise the property transactions in disregard of restrictions from the parent ministry.

For starters, those involved in the transactions — council officials and investors — would soon start counting losses as ignorance of law is no excuse. Kacc that seems to have found its teeth and would soon swing into action, if its recent prosecutions are anything to go by.

Furthermore, Dr Lumumba recently urged Local Government minister Musalia Mudavadi to stop the sales. According to Kacc, the properties are being disposed in a ballot system, which is questionable. More perplexing is perhaps the fact that Lands Minister James Orengo recently revoked title deeds in municipalities that are currently involved in the current sales.

For instance, in Kisumu, 37 titles reserved for the High Court and municipal houses were among the 345 cancelled countrywide last week. Several other municipalities were victims of revoked title deeds of property in the latest special Gazette Notice No124 dated November 26. To refresh memories, the new Constitution empowers the Government to repossess public land allocated unlawfully.

Court cases

Consequently, more people are appearing in court for wrongly acquired property or helping individuals or organisations get them illegally. Ironically, most of the questionable investments are from parastatals like the Kenya Wildlife Service and the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute.

Others are the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority, Kenya National Library Services and the Meteorolgical Department.

Currently, the Ministry of Lands works with its Local Government counterpart and the Kacc to reign in on fraudulent investors.

The writer is an Advocate
of the High Court of Kenya.