Lands commissioner Abdikadir Khalif wants his boss Swazuri, CS Ngilu to resign, acuses them of sabotaging reforms

Lands Cabinet Secretary Charity Ngilu (left) and NLC chairman Muhamad Swazuri

NAIROBI: A commissioner with the National Lands Commission (NLC) has now broken ranks with his boss and accused him of sabotaging land reforms.

Commissioner Abdikadir Khalif is now accusing NLC chairman Muhamad Swazuri and Lands Cabinet Secretary Charity Ngilu of presiding over stagnation and confusion in the land sector.

In a hard hitting letter to the two, Khalif wants them to resign if they don’t want to work and give others an opportunity to serve Kenyans.

Under the watch of Ngilu and Swazuri, the NLC commissioner says the culture of land grabbing has matured from public land grabbing, to general land grabbing whether private, public or community land.

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“I write this letter to both of you with sadness and apprehension because as leaders in the land sector, I believe you have stagnated reforms, reversed devolution, presided over unnecessary confusion in public land administration thereby creating a fertile environment for extensive and blatant land grabbing,” he says.

The letter comes only two days before a 90 day period given to the NLC and the ministry to iron out their differences and deposit their agreement with the Supreme Court lapses. The 90 day period expires Wednesday with Khalif saying nothing tangible has been agreed upon by the two parties and both the CS and Swazuri have shown little commitment to the deal.

“May I urge you to show leadership and as a minimum accept to implement the resolution you made before the President and respect directed given by eh Supreme Court. But if for any reason you are unable or unwilling to deliver on those promises, may I take this opportunity to request both of you to get out of the way for others to take us to the promised land,” he adds.

The letter dated 26th of January 2015 is also copied to head of civil service Joseph Kinyua, CIC chairman Charles Nyachae, Solicitor General Njee Muturi, PS Mariamu El Maawy, Council of Governors Chair Isaac Ruto, NLC CEO Tom Chavangi, all NLC commissioners, Ombudsman Otiende Amollo and chairs parliamentary committees of Lands Alex Muiru and Constitution Implementation Oversight Committee’s Njoroge Baiya.

Tuesday, Swazuri declined to comment about the letter saying he had not read it. “I haven’t seen that letter, let me look for it then will comment,” he said. By press time, the NLC boss was not responding to our telephone inquiries.

On her side, Ngilu could not be reached for comment as she was said to be engaged in daylong meetings. In the morning hours, she chaired a meeting of Makueni leaders to discuss the issues of SGR compensation while in the afternoon she was meeting Swazuri in his 6th floor office at Ardhi House.

An aide to Ngilu said the CS was unlikely to respond to the allegations since she had committed herself to end and avoid any public spat with the commission.

When contacted by the Standard, the commissioner said he had decided to speak out as it is becoming clear that neither Ngilu nor Swazuri are committed to land reforms but are rather providing an avenue for wanton grabbing of land.

Khalif said he believed the lack of progress in implementing land reforms in Kenyan, besides embarrassing the current administration also threatens the country’s social order, economic stability and national security.

“I dare say that despite public pronouncements to the contrary, our country is worse off now than ever before as far as public and general land administration is concerned. Property ownership and the guarantee of title has never been threatened as they are now. Never in the history of Kenya has so much land fraud been committed by so few against so many in so a short time.”

The letter comes at a time when the ministry has been put on the spot over the spate of claims of land grabbing with the Langata Primary School playground being the recent one.  President Uhuru Kenyatta has since asked Ngilu and Swazuri to take responsibility for failing to handle the matter.