Kaimenyi must not underrate the sleepy Lands docket

The November 2015 Cabinet shuffle saw Prof Jacob Kaimenyi move from the Education Ministry to Lands.

He swapped places with Dr Fred Matiang’i, who until then had given quite a good account of himself in Lands.

Dr Matiang’i had held forte in an acting capacity following the exit of Ms Charity Ngilu.

Prof Kaimenyi must not underrate the rather sleepy Lands docket. This is one ministry whose operations have fundamental implications on the security, economy, and politics of the country.

The land-related murders, protracted and expensive court cases, public demonstrations, project delays, and allocation of riparian land and road reserves witnessed in Nairobi county underscore this.

Unfortunately, these problems are slowly scaling up countrywide.

Much as Prof Kaimenyi has gone about business quietly since going to Ardhi House, his recent disbandment of land control boards and the Huruma building collapse that followed now call for action.

The collapsed building appeared to have been erected on a plot seemingly right next to a river, raising issues on the appropriateness of the allocation.

ELECTION ISSUE

Moreover, the electoral clock is ticking and, as always, land and related issues will soon snowball into an election issue.

His ministry must be fully prepared to stand public scrutiny and election rhetoric on performance and future plans.

As a start, Prof Kaimenyi has done well to manage the conflict that had always been there between the ministry and the National Land Commission.

It is a conflict that did not augur well for the country and business.

One can only hope that this will be a permanent solution that will translate into better service delivery by the ministry and the commission.

Listening to technical officers from both institutions, this is achievable provided working guidelines are developed based on existing laws so that the public can be seamlessly served without getting tossed between the two institutions.

This should make sense since most of the hands-on technical officers have previously worked together.

The dissolution of land control boards was long overdue, with routine complaints filed about these organs from most parts of the country.

RESTORING INTEGRITY

However, Prof Kaimenyi will need to go beyond merely reconstituting these organs.

First, he will need to put in place a mechanism that appoints members who view these organs as platforms to safeguard the interests of the public and promote local economies and not vehicles for self-enrichment.

In every jurisdiction, it should be possible to raise men and women of such vision and integrity.

He will have to protect the vetting panels from pressure from local political actors to appoint their loyalists.

Moreover, he will need to find a way of ensuring that the officers from the Lands offices, who usually provide the secretariat, are themselves credible and committed.

This criterion should also apply to the officials from the provincial administration who chair and provide overall guidance to these boards.

For routine business, if the chairperson and secretary play their parts as they should, these boards function well.

In addition, the boards must be facilitated with sufficient official stationery and member allowances lest such resource gaps are irregularly loaded on to the bills of service seekers.

Prof Kaimenyi should then focus on routine service delivery issues at Ardhi House and around the counties.

The land business has become anyone’s preserve. Within and without government, cartels and fraudsters have established forte.

Many people without professional credentials pose as planners, surveyors, valuers, or real estate agents and do business most promiscuously.

They seem to have willing collaborators who prepare and get fake survey records internally approved, then proceed to process parallel title deeds.

Similarly, riparian, road, and other sensitive public reserves have been quietly issued with titles from public offices.

Prof Kaimenyi must put the police on the trail of land fraudsters.

He must call upon sincere professionals in his ministry, through their professional boards and associations, to rise up and help the country to clean up the mess in land deals.

He also must face the reality that some officers are deliberately abetting land fraud and ship them out if he wants to uphold integrity and service delivery.

Mr Mwathane is a surveyor. [email protected]