Letters show County approved lease of public land in Eastleigh

The Eastleigh open air market land whose ownership is shrouded in controversy was approved by the Nairobi County Government.

Letters seen by the Nation written by the Nairobi executive committee member Christopher Khaemba dated June 23, this year and addressed to Ali Ibrahim of NLC confirms that Mr Ali Sheikh Mohamud and Mr Farah Mohamed Barrow operating as Alfa Traders were leased the public land, despite a report by the Commission on Administration of Justice (CAJ) revealing it was a public land.

“The above reference property measuring approximately 0.5078 Hectares or 1.248 acres was leased to Mr Ali Sheikh Mohamud and Mr Farah Mohamed Barrow operating as Alfa Traders for a term of 99 years with effect from August 1, 1969 by the former City Council of Nairobi,” read the letter.

Mr Khaemba in his letter said that the lease was registered by the ministry of lands as grant no.p4471 on the January 29, 2007.

He added that the user of the property as per condition No.12 of the lease was for commercial purposes only.

On Wednesday the National Land Commission (NLC) chairman revoked the title deed and ordered the construction to stop despite writing to the Nairobi Governor in a letter dated July 29, this year, saying that the land was dully allocated to Alfa Traders.

Dr Muhamad Swazuri, in the letter, said that the NLC had put the matter to rest since the county government had not contested the ownership.

“From the above records availed to us including your letters of July 30, 2016, and June 23, 2016, you have confirmed that the subject parcel of the land was dully allocated out by yourselves. It has been transferred severally upto the hands of Alfa Traders who are now developing it,” read the letter.

An investigation by Commission on Administration of Justice (CAJ) carried out in August, this year following a petition by 403 traders showed that the defunct city council had made double allocation to two private companies.

The report revealed that officials of the defunct City Council including the former Deputy Town Clerk Nelson Otido and former Mayor the late Dick Wathika cleared the two developers to proceed with the construction.

Although the lease was later revoked on the basis that it was issued unlawfully, senior County official — Chief Valuer Isaac Nyoike — confirmed that the disputed piece of land belonged to Ali Sheikh Mahamud and Farah Mohamed Barrow.

Subsequently, Director of Legal Affairs, Karisa Iha, also informed the developers that they were the registered owners of the parcel of land and should take possession of the premises subject to court cases being discharged.

The land in question measures 0.5116 hectares (approximately 1.26 acres) and registered as 36/VII/1037 and is a public land.

The CAJ said the land was first leased to Mr Ali Sheikh Mohamud and Mr Farah Mohamed Barrow operating as Alfa Traders on January 2007 for 99 years and on November 24, 2008 the same land was leased to Golden Lime Internatinal Limited for 45 years under the Private Public Partnership Agreement.

“All these allocation were done with full knowledge that this was a public land (Eastleigh Market) licensed to individual traders,” read the CAJ report.

The investigations confirmed that the issuance of the lease documents to Alfa Traders did not follow the council procedure for leasing public land to private developers.

The court also through the Civil Appeal No 129 of 2013 quashed the award of public private partnership tender to the second private developer — Golden Lime International Limited — on May 22, 2015 for being unlawful and in contravention of the Public Procurement and disposal Act.