Ruiru MP Simon King’ara has sponsored a Bill in Parliament to compel the state to issue all public schools with title deeds.
King’ara said the Public Land 2018 Amendment Bill will protect land belonging to public schools across the country from grabbers.
He spoke during the groundbreaking ceremony for construction of a new primary school in Mutuya, Mwihoko ward, on Monday.
The lawmaker said the Bill had already been published and was awaiting tabling for the First Reading.
The MP said lack of the vital land ownership documents had left most schools at the mercy of notorious grabbers who acquire forged titles.
“Many schools across the country have lost chunks of their land to corrupt land grabbers while others are already dealing with land grabbing cases in courts. We must put this to an end and I believe that once my Bill is passed by Parliament and assented by the President, cases of grabbing of school land will be a thing of the past,” King'ara said.
He said donors willing to start projects in public schools had declined due to lack of the requisite land ownership documents.
“Like in 2018, the government of Japan wanted to facilitate projects at Ruiru Girls Secondary School that could have seen it become a boarding school but diverted their support elsewhere after the school failed to produce a title deed,” he said.
The MP said other public spaces earmarked for construction of social amenities like hospitals, social halls, police posts and markets in the constituency were prime targets of unscrupulous grabbers.
He said following the establishment of a lands registry in Ruiru, his office will coordinate with local administrators and residents to fast track production of title deeds for public spaces.
Mwihoko MCA Benson Kamau said once the Bill was passed, Education, Lands and Interior ministries should work together and fast track issuance of title deeds to all gazetted public schools.
“The burden of acquiring the vital documents for the schools should not be left to head teachers alone because, for instance, they might have issues interpreting information as recorded in community land maps. Again school heads can be transferred even before completing the process of acquiring the school land documents,” he said.
The state together with Ruiru National Government Constituency Development Fund (NG-CDF) is constructing two public primary schools at Mutuya and Manguo Ruiru subcounty.
The two schools will decongest Mwihoko and Mwiki primary schools which currently have 1,700 and 4,000 pupils respectively.
