Muhammad Swazuri has maintained that the compensation for
Ruaraka school land was above board and that the NLC's value was the lowest.
The 13.7 acre piece of land neighbours GSU headquarters, De La Rue and the Kenya School of Monetary Studies.
Two private firms -
Afrison Export-Import Limited and Huelands Limited - as well as
Ruaraka High and Drive Inn Primary schools have claimed the property.
Swazuri said the Commission did the due diligence that revealed that the land belonged to Afrison Export Limited which is owned by businessman Francis Mburu.
Swazuri emphasised his position in a statement on Tuesday, in which he insisted that the National Land Commission adhered to the law and was confident that justice had been served.
The chair noted "conflicting and misleading" reports in the media on the issue of the compensation.
"The NLC wishes to set the record straight and assure the public that this process duly followed the law and was above board," he said.
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The NLC boss explained
that
former Education CS Fred Matiangi authorised the NLC's acquisition of the land, registration LR No. 7879/4.
Swazuri said that on August 17, 2016,
Afrison wrote to the commission complaining about the partial occupation of its private land.
On September 13 that year, he said, the NLC wrote to the Education ministry informing it of the complaint and asking it to respond.
On February 7, 2017, the PS in the ministry wrote back to the NLC saying the schools were on private land. The ministry asked the commission to acquire the property to secure the public investment in the schools.
“On March 17, the CS formally requested the commission to commence the process of compulsory acquisition of the private land to enable the two schools to acquire title deeds," Swazuri said in the statement.
The chair
denied that the land belonged to the public but was privately owned. He said several searches, the latest one being on January 19, confirmed that the property was freehold,
had no encumbrances
and belonged to Afrison.
"The commission also discovered that the allotment letter in favour to Ruaraka High School, ref no 108096157 and dated June 28, 1999, was fake as it bore no reference to any plan," he said.
In April, Deputy Chief Counsel Thoithi Kanyuira said the two institutions were illegally constructed on the land.
“The putting up of the schools on the land was illegal. It is occupied because of parties that invaded it,” Kanyuira said.
Ruaraka High and Drive Inn Primary, however, told the National Assembly Lands committee that they rightfully owned the 13.8 acres so nobody should claim its ownership.
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Swazuri further said that the NLC
undertook valuation using the comparable analysis principle and arrived at the value of Sh206 million per acre. He said
Afrison had engaged an independent valuer in 2016 who gave valuation of Sh436 million per acre.
"The valuation by the commission was thus the lowest, putting into consideration the passage of time since the High Court award of 2006."
It had been said that Sh3.2 billion was paid as compensation but Swazuri earlier said that only Sh1.5 billion was approved.
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