Crisis of ageing staff hits Kalro as land grabbers have a field day

A majority of staff at the Kenya Agriculture and Livestock Research Organisation are nearing retirement age, a new audit report shows, with the parastatal having no succession plan in place.

The audit has also exposed how large tracts of land at the research agency that have been encroached.

Others on the verge of being grabbed for lack of ownership documents.

Auditor General Nancy Gatungu said that more than 68 per cent of Kalro employees are aged between 51 and 65 years. She warned of a crisis if the situation is not addressed in the shortest time.

She said there was no evidence to show that the skills possessed by the ageing workforce has been transferred to the younger generation.

“No explanation was provided on the succession strategies adopted to ensure retention of key skills in the organisation,” Gathungu said.

She said under the circumstances, “succession strategies put in place to ensure retention of key skills in the organisation could not be confirmed.”

In what compounds Kalro’s troubles, the research agency faces an acute shortage of staff, with many crucial positions remaining vacant.

The audit for the year ending June 30, 2022, shows that the organisation had 1,674 staff yet it is supposed to have 3,612 workers to operate fully.

Gathungu dismissed the 224 staffers recruited during the period under review as insignificant.

“Although management explained that the organisation had recruited 224 additional staff, the proposed number was insufficient to cover the gap,” she said.

To bridge the gap, the audit says Kalro resorted to engaging interns and worked with about 490 during the year.

However, a review of the records revealed that the lot was engaged for more than 12 months contrary to Kalro’s human resource manual.

The HR Manual, September 2017, states that internship programmes shall not exceed 12 months.

Apart from staff shortages, the research agency’s board was also not fully constituted at the time of the audit.

Whereas the entity is supposed to have 12 members of the board, only 10 posts were filled, staging a breach of the law.

The Kenya Agriculture and Livestock Research Act, 2013, provides that the board shall comprised 12 members.

“No explanation was provided for the anomaly,” the report reads.

In the same vein, the audit has flagged large tracts of Kalro land that have been encroached.

The audit has cited a case in Kisii, where the county has taken over parts of the organisation's land in the outskirts of the town meant for food crop research institute.

“The county government was constructing the governor’s residence in approximately two acres of the grabbed land while a cancer centre was being constructed in the other parcel estimated at one acre without consent from the organisation,” the auditor said. 

Also cited was a parcel valued Sh400 million that was allocated to then Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (later renamed Kalro) in 2011 but the same has no ownership documents to date. 

Kalro land at Manera and Olmagogo farms in Naivasha - Mai Mahiu Road and another in Katumani Centre measuring about 100 hectares were illegally acquired by informal developers in the year 2000.

Part of the said parcel was used as a dumping site by a county government and construction of a power station was also taking place on the same land.

A group of squatters who invaded Kalro land in Naivasha in 2011 claiming ownership still occupy the said parcel despite a court order against them.

The order made more than 12 years ago was yet to be effected as of the review period. The informal settlers had not vacated the land.

At least 56 parcels of land all under the Sugar Research Institute in Kibos, Kisumu county, did not have ownership documents.

Kalro also risks losing two parcels in Azani and Koru measuring 99 hectares and 127 hectares, respectively.

The parcels were being used by the Coffee Board of Kenya but the latter was merged to form Agricultural Food Authority.

The audit established that Kiambu county was also sitting on a Kalro property in Ruiru without any lease agreement.

The land hosts the Agricultural Mechanization Services, which was devolved to Kiambu county by the Agriculture ministry.

A 20-acre piece valued at about Sh8.4 million belonging to Kalro has also been developed by the Tea Research Institute in Kirinyaga.

Kisii county took over a residential building without paying a cent to the research agency.

Kalro also lost a title deed for a parcel of land in Ruiru occupied by the Coffee Research Institute.

A private developer has sued the research agency over a beach plot in Mtwapa worth Sh56 million. While Kalro claims ownership, it has no title deed.

The management said that the land was illegally subdivided into five plots but the commissioner of lands revoked the allotments, prompting the suit.

“The matter had not been determined as at June 30, 2022 and ownership of the plots could not be confirmed,” Gathungu said.

The value of the parcels of land in Msabaha, Kilifi, Njoro in Nakuru, five parcels of land in Limuru, Kiambu and a parcel of land in Alupe sub-centre, Busia were also not stated.

---