Kisumu county governor Anyang’ Nyong’o has been told to hasten the creation of a county assets register to ease the recovery of grabbed public properties.
On Wednesday, Kisumu residents accused Nyong’o of deliberately delaying the development of the register.
Led by former nominated councillor George Weda, they said In a press statement that the governor should provide them with the register within a month or else they go to court.
Lack of the register, according to the residents, was making it difficult to establish and repossess stolen assets.
They claimed that the deadline given by the Ministry of Devolution to the county to develop the register had elapsed. “There is no inventory showing the movable and immovable county properties,” Weda said.
The governor’s Press Unit director Aloice Ager said the county had already developed policy guidelines
for the assets and debts register.
“We are optimistic that by the end of January the county should be able to have the register,” Ager said.
He blamed the delays on the Transitional Authority which had been mandated to oversee the process.
The former councillor said that some of the county assets including public land, vehicles and institutional buildings had been grabbed.
“These properties are meant to help the public and not to benefit a few individuals. Urgent intervention is therefore needed,” Weda said.
Kisumu City Residents Voice Association chairman Audi Ogada urged the land task force to focus on an efficient land report. He said
the report will inform the county on management of land and irregularities such as illegal allotments, stolen land and land rate defaulters.
Ogada added that their report will play a key role in developing the register and it should be properly done.
“A shoddy report by the task force will see a faulty assets register in place thereby putting Kisumu into a big mess,” he stated.
Ogada alleged that the task force
had overstepped its mandate by demanding land rates from residents and repossessing pieces of land.
He said the implementation role should be done by county land executive and chief officer based on the task force report.
The governor’s communication office noted that the register will be holistic as it will incorporate all sectors.
According to Ager, an assets register does not exempt anybody from the contractual obligation with the county government from paying land rates.
Counties had been given a deadline of August this year to submit their registers to Parliament by the County Assets and Liabilities Committee.
The Intergovernmental Relations Technical Committee (IGRTC) which took over the residual functions of the Transition Authority, had extended the deadline from March 31 to June due to the delay in gazetting structural modalities.
Among the fixed assets the 47 counties inherited from municipal councils are land, buildings and motor vehicles.
The details of public assets countrywide would be loaded onto the National Assets Register (NAR).
This will help in the establishment of a database of the country’s assets and liabilities.