A fund set up in 2012 to address landlessness has spent Sh1.6 billion without resettling Kenyans, Auditor General Nancy Gathungu has said.
She issued her verdict on the Land Settlement Fund in an audit report for the period ending June 30, 2024.
Gathungu said four prime parcels of land acquired at great cost to taxpayers remain undistributed years after purchase.
“In the circumstances, the objective for which the parcels were acquired and value for money had not been achieved,” she said.
The audit findings mean that there are IDPs still living in temporary shelters years after displacement, squatters facing evictions and families trapped in generational poverty for lack of land.
The parcels in question include Kisima Njoro property in Nakuru, a 1,112-acre piece bought in 2012 for Sh396.9 million to resettle post-election violence IDPs.
Twelve years later, not a single acre has been allocated, leaving victims of the 2007-08 crisis waiting indefinitely for the justice of land ownership.
“At the time of audit in November 2024, the land had not been surveyed or subdivided, and the beneficiaries had not been settled 12 years after the purchase of the land,” Gathungu said.
The pattern repeats itself across the country, with a case in Kilifi county, where the Mikanjuni Farm, bought in 2020 for Sh377 million, sits idle despite a ready list of beneficiaries.
A few kilometres away, the larger Mazrui Farm, acquired in 2022 for Sh445.4 million remains only partially distributed.
Meanwhile, in Mombasa, the Kadza Ndani plot bought for Sh378 million in 2020 is yet to host the informal settlers it was meant to help.
Gathungu is further concerned that the fund management has not shown signs of reforming the institution for the better.
The auditor general noted that previous audit recommendations go unimplemented, the same problems recur year after year and no one is held accountable.
“The issues still remained unresolved and management did not provide explanation for the failure to implement recommendations,” the report reads.
It also emerged that the management of the fund was not in a position to evaluate, rank and prioritise critical risks and channel resources towards mitigating identified risks.
There were no formal approved processes and guidelines on how to mitigate operational, legal and financial risks.
Gathungu’s review also pointed to billions of shillings tied up in questionable transactions by the Land Settlement Fund.
These include loans that should have been written off decades ago.
The fund is unable to recover Sh6.6 billion, whose interest has also grown to Sh5 billion, with no system in place to manage and track the outstanding amounts. Some of the loans were issued to settlers dating back to 1962 and have remained outstanding to date, with minimal or no movement during the year under review.
“Management did not have a clear policy on evaluation and management of accounts receivable, which could be used to determine the recoverability of the outstanding loans,” the auditor general said.
There was also no provision for bad debts.
