- Auditors had questioned why he directed that Kenya Railways, and not the commission, carry out the compensation
- According to the law, NLC is the only agency mandated to compensate landowners on behalf of the government.
Image: /EZEKIEL AMING'A
Former National Lands Commission boss Muhammad Swazuri yesterday defended himself against Sh12 billion standard gauge railway land payout accusation.
Auditors had questioned why he directed that Kenya Railways, and not the commission, carry out the compensation to individuals and entities whose land was affected by the SGR project in 2014.
According to the law, NLC is the only mandated agency to carry out land valuation and compensate landowners on behalf of the government.
MPs sitting at the Public Accounts Committee yesterday demanded an explanation for the directive, with claims of a possible conspiracy between the commission and Kenya Railways Corporation.
Swazuri was before the oversight team to respond to queries raised in the special audit on SGR compensation covering 2014-17.
The audit indicated that some of the valuation documents used in the multi-billion compensation had no signatures, authorising stamps and were undated.
PAC chairman Opiyo Wandayi took Swazuri to task on where he derived the mandate to direct Kenya Railways to effect the payment.
“During these three years under cover, it is on record that NLC did not pay Sh12 billion compensation and these were effected directly by Kenya Railways on instruction from the former chairman,” Wandayi said.
“On what basis did you direct Kenya Railways to pay these compensation against clear provisions of the law.”
In response, Swazuri told the parliamentary team that the commission resorted to Kenya Railways as it had no staff during the period to conduct the payment.
He said the commission relied on an advisory of the land acquisition and compensation committee.
“It was a decision of the commission. We sat as a commission and decided it will be better to have Kenya Railways to do the compensation because we had no staff at that time,” Swazuri said.
But the argument was discounted by the Ugunja MP, who cited a number of compensations done by the commission in 2014 when it claimed to have no staff.
“During that time, there were other acquiring entities channeling money to NLC for compensation. From where we sit, it is like there was some conspiracy between NLC and Kenya Railways to circumvent the law.”
Swazuri also was in trouble after it emerged that the commission spent Sh226 million earned as interest without approval of the National Assembly and Treasury.
“Sh226 million was earned from the Sh23 billion deposited into your accounts and which were utilised without reference to Parliament or the Treasury. Do you know that is a violation of the law?” posed Garissa Township MP Aden Duale.
The team directed that the commission provides the minutes and letters of the acquisition and compensation committee that advised the commission to allow Kenya Railways directly compensate the landowners.
Edited by A.N