Ministry sanctioned over Molo land

Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee has sanctioned the Ministry of Lands over the 982-acre parcel bought in Molo in 2007 to resettle the landless from Likia Forest.

The committee argued that the land sold for Sh169 million from Karume Investment was used to resettle “imported squatters from elsewhere.”

At a PAC meeting with Lands permanent secretary Dorothy Angote on Thursday morning, the committee reached the verdict that the ministry was “deliberately withholding information from the ministry.” This came after the Director of Land Adjudication and Settlement, Ms Esther Ogega, failed to show up with documents over the parcel of land.

The documents needed were the land valuation report, the directors of Karume Investment and the history of the land, which they attempted to link as amounting to a fraudulent deal. After two hours of waiting for the documents, the committee, through its chairman, Dr Boni Khalwale, and Mwala MP Daniel Muoki said the ministry had “hidden the records knowing that the transaction was faulty.”

“It is inconceivable that officers of this calibre are not able to give us information which ought to be at their finger tips,” said Mr Muoki.

But the PS replied: “I asked all my top officers, and they know it (that) all information should be given to this committee …we have not deliberately obfuscated the information that is required; at least not to my knowledge.” The committee had no option but to adjourn discussion on the matter to after two weeks. This was the second time Ms Angote and his team were being turned away for doing shoddy work.

Although she smiled as she responded to the PAC questions, she was not amused with the performance of her directors and after the meeting, she reprimanded them.

“I told you people, this is no joke, we need full disclosure. These are public funds we are talking about…how come you were working weekends yet we just can’t get the documents which you have assured me exist,” the Nation overheard Ms Angote tell her mandarins. “It is not about the time you took, it is about the value you added to the meeting!”

The disappointed PS then walked away with some of the officers trying to explain their positions. Ms Angote now has to explain to the committee the details of the land which has been cited “as the source of the tribal conflict” in the vast Rift Valley.

The controversy over the parcel of land has been in contention since its purchase in the 2006-2007 fiscal year, with the members of the Kalenjin community accusing the government of having gone out to buy the land to “resettle Kikuyus.” Dr Khalwale said the documents were important so that the public gets to know “make sure that public funds had not been used to buy land from well-connected individuals for the benefit of a clique of their supporters.”

“We also want to make sure that this parcel was not in the Ndung’u land report bearing in mind that the deal was processed within a record eight days,” said Dr Khalwale.

When the PAC went for a break, Rongai MP Luka Kigen (who is not a member of the committee and did not attend the meeting) asked the chairman to be tough on the lands issue because “it is such perceptions that build the ethnic tensions in Nakuru.”

“Mr Kigen was wondering how the land is bought for the landless in Nakuru yet those resettled are from elsewhere… this is a serious issue which touches on the security of the Nakuru people,” the PAC chairman told the PS when the meeting resumed.