National Lands Commission chairman Muhammad Swazuri has given reasons in support of the controversial acquisition of the Sh3.2 billion Ruraka land.
Swazuri said the trail of land ownership records at the Lands ministry, corroborated with correspondence from Nairobi City Council, revealed that the 13.5 acres of land are private.
He cited a search conducted in the last three consecutive years, a 2012 court ruling that awarded Sh4.1 billion, two separate parliamentary investigations and a no-subdivision letter from City Hall as confirmation that the land belongs to Afrison Export import Limited.
Swazuri said the government's decision to compensate businessman Francis Mburi, for the 54 cares hived off for the expansion of Thika superhighway, Outer ring projects and the GSU housing units, also confirms the land is private.
He challenged those insisting the property is public to produce evidence as he did, adding the owner of the land complained in 2015 because the new Constitution gave latitude for public complaints.
“I have produced documents to show that land is private ... the conditions at that time did not allow the latitude of explaining yourself,” said Swazuri in an interview on Citizen TV on Thursday night.
The chair wondered why the government previously gave compensation for portions of a 96-acres piece of land if indeed it was public as claimed by Education CS Amina Mohamed and Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko.
“During the construction of Thika Superhighway, a portion was taken and paid for. During the construction of outer ring road a section was taken and the government paid. For the GSU housing units the government paid. For the Posta building, the government paid,” he noted.
“Why are they paying for public land if it is public?” he also said, defending the decision by the commission to approve compensation for the land on which Ruaraka High and Drive Inn Primary schools sit.
Read:
Also read:
Clarifying that NLC did not instigate the acquisition, Swazuri said the Education ministry initiated the process as the acquiring entity as required under the law and after establishing the land was private.
“The Ministry of Lands wrote categorically that according to previous documents, 'this land is private… please go ahead and acquire … with all those forces'. What proof is there that it is public land? We don’t disagree but where is the proof?” he said.
Swazuri further said the commission’s responsibilities were to confirm the owner of the land from records available at the Lands ministry before commencing the compensation process.
“The Education ministry saw the need to have that land acquired. They wrote to us and we identified the owner which the ministry had identified and confirmed,” he said.
“In between, there was nothing we could do. If you see an acquiring body there and the owner is there, what else are you supposed to do?”
He maintained that Afrison objected to the City Council of Nairobi's proposal for subdivision, meaning there was no surrender of any parcel of land for public utilities as alleged.
“A letter from the city council which I have, dated 17/02/2017, confirms that there was no surrender or subdivision of that land from the county government itself, so where is this public ownership coming from?”
He added that a 2012 parliamentary committee probe concluded that the land is private and so did last month’s report by National Assembly’s committee on lands.
“The committee also observed that evidence presented indicated that LR. No. 7879/4 belonged to Afrison and Huelands, Ltd save for the contradiction that an allotment letter had been issued to Ruaraka High School by the Commissioner of Lands,” concluded the committee chaired by Kitui South MP Rachel Nyamai.
The DPP has returned the investigations file to the EACC for tightening of evidence before prosecution of top government officials.
Read: