Lands Cabinet Secretary Charity Ngilu, Lands commission chair Mohamed Swazuri clash in public

Lands Cabinet Secretary Charity Ngilu and National Lands Commissioner Chairman Muhammad Swazuri when they appeared before Senate Lands Committee Tuesday.  [Photo: Boniface Okendo/Standard]

By Moses Njagih

Nairobi, Kenya: Lands Cabinet Secretary Charity Ngilu clashed in public with National Land Commission chairman Mohamed Swazuri over executive powers on land administration.

Their differences played out with both claiming the legal mandate for adjudication of land and issuance of title deeds, constitution of the County Lands Management Boards and resettlement of people evicted from forests.

It took the intervention of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Lands and Natural Resources chairman Lenny Kivuti to stop further exchanges between them. He recommended that the sticky issues be resolved at a retreat bringing together all stakeholders on land.

“I will not allow you to go ahead in that direction. You came here as one delegation headed by the Cabinet Secretary and it would be unfair to attempt to handle these matters in this direction,” said Kivuti, who made the proposal for a retreat.

Ngilu maintained that the Commission did not have the legal mandate to sign title deeds, insisting that the mandate was still within the jurisdiction of the Lands ministry.

Ngilu said that her position had even been backed by the Commission for the Implementation of the Constitution (CIC) in a letter to her and to Swazuri, stating that the Commission did not have express authority to sign the documents.

An emboldened Ngilu accused Swazuri of going against their agreement to appoint acting Director General of Lands Peter Kahuho, who would be undertaking the signing of documents, insisting that the commission boss was in the know with regard to the contested appointment.

Gazette notice

“It was the chairman (Swazuri) who in fact instructed the commission CEO and the Legal Director to facilitate the gazettement of the appointment of Kahuho on acting capacity,” Ngilu told the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Lands and Natural Resources.

She added: “What surprised me most is when the chairman and the CEO took another gazette notice saying only the commission had the constitutional mandate to sign titles. They gazetted themselves as the only ones with the authority to undertake the duty.”