Papers used in railway land pay false: Officials

Top officials in the Lands ministry on Tuesday evening appeared to confirm fears that taxpayers could have paid up to Sh1 billion as compensation for land irregularly allocated to individuals.

This was after the officials admitted that documents on whose strength land was bought for the standard gauge railway and millions paid out could not be trusted.

The admissions by the team led by Lands Cabinet Secretary Jacob Kaimenyi resulted in a dramatic conclusion of hearings in the consideration of a petition for the removal from office of National Lands Commission chairman Muhammad Swazuri.

The committee wound up hearings as it went to compile its report on the petition by former journalist Mugo Njeru that his claim to a piece of land, for which Bakhresa Grain Millers was paid Sh82.5 million, was invalid.

“From where I sit, we dismiss you as owner of LR Number 15100 and the ministry has to explain how they obtained the deed file of the property,” said Rangwe MP George Oner, the temporary chairman of the team.

OFFICIALS PUZZLED

The documents on a piece of land claimed by Mr Njeru’s wife, editor Irima Mugo, were, however, genuine.

Lands registrar Jacob Owino had said that documents in a file on land for which Sh82.5 million has been paid were genuine, but admitted that the officials were puzzled by some of them.

Prof Kaimenyi, Mr Owino, Lands secretary Kang’ethe Kahuho and director of physical planning Augustine Masinde could not explain discrepancies such as the plan for the piece of land being registered in 1991 but being verified in 2013, 22 years later.

They had been forced to take a 30-minute break from the committee hearings to scrutinise files that they said were only found in the morning and which the directors did not know were available until Mr Owino produced them.

They ended up having Mr Owino withdraw the deed file he had earlier described as genuine and that it had been retrieved from a strongroom at Ardhi House, the ministry’s headquarters.

CHANGED STATUS

“The ministry has never proposed a development plan for that land. From our records, that land has always been set aside for a railway reserve. We think whatever is presented has not legally and technically changed the status of the land,” said Mr Masinde.

Said Prof Kaimenyi: “You can be tempted to think they are authentic when they are not.”

“Because of the so-called independence of the NLC, it is not easy to work with them, including the files we’re talking about and what is in them,” he added.

The confusion underlined the dysfunction and lack of coordination between the ministry and the National Land Commission on the compensation for land bought for the SGR that has become evident in the course of the consideration of the petition.

Members of the committee pointed out that while the deed plan for the land Mr Njeru claimed was prepared in 1991, it was registered in 2013.

While the committee has been critical of Dr Swazuri’s conduct, with evidence by other commissioners also pointing in the same direction, Kenya Railways Corporation chief executive Atanas Maina added more fuel to this fire.

Mr Maina said that contrary to what Dr Swazuri said, he did not write a letter to him stating that the corporation had given up ownership of some plots.

“As the custodian of Kenya Railway property, I’d be the last person to disown land that is ours. I would also never go on to claim land that is not ours,” said Mr Maina.

MPS DISAPPOINTED

Dr Swazuri last week told the committee that he had retrieved the letter from Mr Maina but refused to hand it over because he had obtained a petition stopping the committee from acting on the petition.

Whichever way the matter goes — as the courts could stop the matter after Parliament defied its orders — the petition exposed serious issues at the NLC, which left some MPs disappointed.

On Monday, Mbeere South MP Mutava Musyimi expressed his frustrations at the commission whose setting up he helped oversee as chairman of the committee that dealt with land matters in the last Parliament.

He said the reason the NLC was formed was for justice to be delivered to Kenyans.