Drama in court after county lands executive fumbles over jurisdiction

War Memorial Hospital Directors Simon Mwangi and Roger Joslyn and others when they appeared in court before Chief Magistrate Elizabeth Juma on January 13, 2025. [File, Standard] The competence of a senior executive at the Nakuru County Government was cast in doubt when he struggled to explain basic facts under his docket in court. Appearing as a witness in court County Executive Committee Member (CECM) for Lands, Physical Planning, Housing, and Urban Development John Kihagi was not able to show which properties in the county were public and which ones were not. While giving his testimony before Chief Magistrate Elizabeth Juma, Kihagi was hard-pressed to explain the difference between land owned by the county government and that under the national government. According to Kihagi, as long as what is constructed on land in counties carries out devolved functions, the land can be said to be owned by the respective county government. "If the land has a hospital or a market, under the devolved function, then we can say the land belongs to the county government," he said yesterday. Kihagi was testifying in a case where three War Memorial Hospital directors, alongside four others, are charged with fraudulently renewing the lease for the 25-acre land in Milimani, where the hospital stands. The lease was renewed for 50 years, effective March 1, 2021. Kihagi told the court that once the lease for the hospital expired in 2021, the same land reverted to the county government. He was, however, unable to produce documents showing the land belonged to the county government. He was also unable to explain how the county government acquired the land. "As a county government, can you allocate yourself public land?" asked Simon Mwangi, one of the accused people and a director of the hospital. "No, we cannot allocate ourselves land but we apply for the same to be allocated or reserved for us," he said. The CECM was also unable to prove that the county or the national government pumped money into the hospital to buy machines or pay staff. Kihagi was put to task to explain why the county government interfered with the running of the hospital, took it over in January 2024, and shut it down, chasing away patients and staff. He said the county government had blocked the renewal of the lease, owing to the fact that there was a dispute over its ownership with a public hospital that is adjacent to it. However, he failed to produce a document, showing the county government raised an objection on the renewal of the lease within 60 days after it was applied for on January 9, 2020, as required by the law. In fact, Kihagi produced a document showing the land dispute issue was raised in 2023, two years after the lease had already been renewed. The county lands boss, despite claiming he knew more about the land ownership, was unable to prove the presence of a helipad on the land. His explanation was that some parts of the land was a helipad, owing to the fact that government choppers landed on it. He failed to produce permits and approval for the alleged helipad from the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA). "There is no approval as far as I know," he testified. When further interrogated, Kihagi said he did not do a search on the contested land to know who owned it and who were the directors of the hospital. According to Kihagi, the county government bosses relied on and trusted information they received from their subordinates, land officials, and consultancy. "I did not see the need to do the search because we had the CR12," he testified. Kihagi said despite complaining that the hospital lease was fraudulently renewed, the county government had no documents to prove the renewal process was illegal. Further, he confirmed that they had no document to show that they disapproved the renewal of the lease, despite indicating it in his statement.

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