President William Ruto’s plan to take away National Land Commission’s roles in land valuation and compensation is unconstitutional, Constitutional lawyer Bobby Mkangi has opined.
Mkangi said NLC is an independent institution whose mandate is protected by the Constitution and no one has power to take away its mandate.
"Whether the President, the Executive or the Minister, no one can purport to take away any powers given to a constitutional commission and transfer them to another agency and if this happens, the President will be abrogating the Constitution," Mkangi said.
While speaking in Isiolo on Sunday, President Ruto said the Ministry of Lands will be dealing with land valuation and compensation to deal with the corruption that was experienced before.
He bashed the commission for allegedly colluding with cartels to exaggerate the value of land and defrauding the government.
However, Mkangi said President Ruto can deal with alleged corruption in the commission without attempting to interfere with its mandate.
"What you do fight the corruption in the institution using legal out procedures; if there are people to charged let them be brought to court’’, Mkangi said.
The legal expert said the commission has seven functions that have been outlined in Article 67 of the Constitution that cannot be slashed and if one does that it will be null and void.
"For the seven functions that are prescribed for the National Land Commission in the Constitution, those cannot be taken away from the commission. An attempt to do it amounts to doing nothing," Mkangi said.
The functions include management of public land on behalf of the national and county governments, recommending a national land policy to the national government, conducting research related to land, monitoring and having oversight responsibilities over land use planning throughout the country among other roles.
