Surveyors want vetting of Lands officials

Professional groups and lobbyists on land have demanded the vetting of senior officers at the Ministry of Lands before the end of the year in order to stem corruption in the sector.

The groups on Tuesday said the officers should also be pushed to declare properties that they, their spouses and companies own and how they were acquired.

“Those found guilty of corruption should be dismissed and prosecuted,” said the experts led by the Institution of Surveyors of Kenya, Kenya Land Alliance and the Federation of Kenya Women Lawyers.

The ministry led by Mr James Orengo has been in the spotlight since anti-graft chief PLO Lumumba and Mr Kenneth Akide of the Law Society of Kenya led a demonstration to Ardhi House over what they called corruption and incompetence by officials.

The lobbyists asked Mr Orengo “to own up” and concede that they had been overwhelmed by entrenched corruption networks in the ministry and rather seek public support.

Mr Orengo, has however defended the ministry against corruption allegations and challenged Prof Lumumba to take action instead of “making noise and engaging in public theatrics”.

According to the groups, the top officers were an obstacle to reforms in the Lands ministry.

The officers they want vetted include the Commissioner of Lands and the directors of survey, land adjudication and settlement, and physical planning.

“The orientation of the senior officers in charge of the process stand as an obstacle to change and innovation,” they said in statement led by Mr Lumumba Odenda of the Land Alliance.

He was accompanied by Mr Mwenda Makathimo of Land Development Institute and Mr Ibrahim Mwathane, the chairman of the Land Sector Board of the Kenya Private Sector Alliance.

Others in the group were Shelter Forum and the Hakijamii trust.

Mr Makathimo pointed out that Lands ministry should undergo massive clean up like the Judiciary and the Police service whose members will be subjected to rigorous vetting.

Besides the vetting, they demanded an audit of land bought for the resettlement of internally displaced people (IDPs) and squatters as well as an inventory of land repossessed for the past three years with an indication on who owns it today.

“There are concerns that some of the repossessed land has been re-allocated to favoured persons.”

They asked the ministry to publish the list of IDPs who had benefited from the distribution of government land.

Further, they want an inventor of land parcels allocated and leases renewed for the past ten years in Nairobi, Malindi, Lamu, Kwale, Machakos, Laikipia, Nakuru and Kisumu.

Mr Odenda accused some ministry officials of working in cahoots with corrupt individuals to issue double titles in order to benefit from out of court settlements.

The influential lobbyists last month forced Mr Orengo to shelve the National Land Commission Bill, the Lands Bill and the Land Registration Bill to accommodate more views from the public.

The minister has pledged to have the Lands Bill enacted in February next year.