Orengo accuses Kacc of incompetence

Lands Minister James Orengo on Thursday dismissed claims by the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission (Kacc) that his ministry was not acting tough on corruption.

The minister produced correspondence between his ministry and Kacc in which the latter asked him to revoke titles of public land that had been grabbed.

“It is therefore amazing that people can now come and say we are not working and yet there is evidence of our cooperation with Kacc,” Mr Orengo said.

He added that the anti-graft body should concentrate more on prosecuting cases on economic crimes instead of “making noise” about it and not acting.

He noted that reforms in the lands sector had been successful pointing to the revenue collected by the ministry in the last three years.

“In the 2008/2009 financial year, the ministry collected revenue worth about Sh800 million but three years later, that is this year, we have collected Sh8.3billion. This is the money that was withheld by people as land rates in the past,” said Mr Orengo.

He added; “I take exceptions to the Director of KACC who - forgetting about his mandate and instead of doing his job - he is out there demonstrating; the reports we give get nowhere. If he wants lessons in demonstrating I can organise counter demonstrations effectively,” he said.

He added that the ministry had recovered public land all over the country such as the Kenyatta International Conference Centre, law courts in Eldoret and lands belonging to the Judiciary in Nairobi and Mombasa.

He was speaking when he received a brief from the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC) on what they had collected on land.

The TJRC said that most of the issues raised by Kenyans related to land.

Last week, the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) and Kacc, protested over the “serious rot” in the ministry, and they demanded immediate action against corrupt civil servants who “frustrated efficient services in the lands office.”

Anti-graft team director Patrick Lumumba and LSK chairman Kenneth Akide led the demonstration.

Prof Lumumba said the lands registries are “horrendous and terrible.”

He said the registries in Nairobi, Kisumu, Mombasa, Thika, Kajiado and Nakuru were “corrupt from top to bottom but Kacc is on their case.”

Mr Orengo said that his ministry had made strides in recovering public land, while the Kacc had failed to get any court case ruled in its favour despite the commission having its staff attached to the Lands Ministry on fulltime basis.

“Within the ministry we have got officials of KACC working full time, if they have any issue regarding corruption or malpractice they should prosecute,” the minister said.

The TJRC Commissioners met the minister to discuss the prevalence of land related violations in statements and memoranda the TJRC has received.

Other issues discussed included; the upcoming thematic hearings on illegal and irregular allocation of land and the modalities of working between the truth seeking commission and the Ministry of Lands.