City legislators want an ad hoc committee formed to probe the grabbing of public land in the county.
They say the relevant county department has failed to rectify the many anomalies dating back to 2017.
Parklands MCA Jayendra Malde on Tuesday said some of the anomalies in his ward, include Highridge clinic where a private developer is erecting a building, North Highridge School on 6th Parklands Avenue that has allegedly been grabbed and another site whose approval for the construction of 10 storeys was extended to 12 storeys.
“Deeply concerned that many residents of Nairobi have abruptly been displaced from their land and properties as a result of politicians and business elites giving bribes and engaging in corruption activities,” Malde says in his motion.
The ward rep at one time threatened to resign if the clinic land was not repossessed.
But Nairobi Metropolitan Services director-general Mohammed Badi effortlessly reclaimed the land on July 13 and ordered the construction to stop.
In August 2018, Governor Mike Sonko had announced the repossession of the same public utility from people he described as land grabbing cartels.
Malde's motion urges the county executive in liaison with NMS to urgently investigate the process followed in the issuance of building approvals and fraudulent acquisition of land in the county since 2017.
The approvals are blamed on contravention of requisite building and land transfer regulations and failure to consult residents before the transfer of such land and property.
Imara Daima MCA Kennedy Obuya insisted that the motion should be developed into a bill to safeguard public land. It was his Roysambu counterpart Peter Warutere who said the formation of an ad-hoc committee should look into all cases of grabbed public land in Nairobi and not Parklands area alone.
“This matter is weighty since both Governor Sonko and Major-General Badi had mentioned it. I support the formation of an ad-hoc committee,” nominated MCA Joyce Muthoni said.
Majority Whip Paul Kado said that the matter should not be turned into a cash cow in the name of investigating.
Speaker Benson Mutura cautioned the MCAs to follow the Standing Orders on the formation of an ad hoc committee.
Standing Order 205 says that a notice of motion for the establishment of an ad hoc committee shall not be admissible unless presented together with a written recommendation of the liaison committee.
- mwaniki fm
