Siaya Senator James Orengo quizzed on multiple allocations

Detectives in the Lamu land saga are interested in knowing how some of the parcels were allocated to more than one owner.

Siaya Senator James Orengo, who was questioned for the second day on Tuesday, said that one of the issues was how land allocated to one company was given to four others.

However, Mr Orengo, who was Lands Minister when the allocations were reportedly made, could not name the firms involved and how the transactions were carried out. He said the matter was still under investigation.

As a lawyer, he said, he had put everything in writing when he was minister, adding, his hands were clean.

He described the detectives’ questioning as warm, adding that unlike the political class in government, the officers were only interested in getting to the bottom of the Lamu land saga.

Detectives are investigating how 22 companies were allocated 500,000 acres of land in the troubled county, on the orders of President Kenyatta.

Mr Orengo read politics in the decision summon him.

The senator, who recorded a statement with detectives at the Directorate of Criminal Investigations Headquarters on Kiambu Road, said some the land was allocated in the 1970s, long before he became minister.

Nearly 100 people have killed in Lamu in violence, which some have blamed on land injustice.

Most of the 22 parcels, whose titles Mr Kenyatta ordered cancelled, are in the Lamu Port-Southern Sudan-Ethiopia Transport (Lapsset) corridor.

Mr Orengo said he had been summoned to settle political scores, and added, this was no way to solve the thorny land issue in the country.

“I was not grilled but recorded a statement to clarify issues that the police wanted to know concerning the matter to do with land in Lamu.

“I am confident that the truth will come out and the politics surrounding this issue will at some stage come to an end and people will now begin to deal with the factual situation,” Mr Orengo said.

He was accompanied by MPs David Ochieng’ (Ugenya) and Jakoyo Midiwo (Gem) during the media briefing.

ISSUE NOT NEW

Mr Orengo said the issue of ranches in Lamu was not new and that he had raised the matter in Parliament where it emerged that 10 of the ranches were registered and allocated land in the 1970s.

He said out of the 22 pieces, it had been established that 10 had been legally allocated to local communities.

“The records are there for all to see that most of these ranches were allocated many years ago for purposes of dealing with the Shifta (Somalia militia) menace.

“It was decided that the land that had become hiding grounds for the bandits be given to communities living in the areas so they could put it to economic use,” Mr Orengo said.

The paper trail for the remaining 12 firms could be verified, he said.

“I am confident that the truth will soon come out regarding this land issue in Lamu,” he said after spending more than four hours with the police at the DCI offices.

Mr Ochieng’ said the land issue in Lamu was not as small as the government is trying to project it to be.