National Land Commission accuses ministry of taking over its role

National Land Commission Chairman Muhamed Swazuri (right) and Vice-Chairperson Abigael Mukolwe listen to views presented by land officials during a meeting in Mombasa in April.  [Photo: Kelvin Karani/Standard]

Kenya: The National Land Commission (NLC) has accused Lands Cabinet Secretary Charity Ngilu of deploying officers to handle renewal of expired public land leases behind the commission’s back.

NLC Vice-Chairperson Abigael Mukolwe claimed the ministry’s attempt to encroach on management of public land was “the elephant in the room” behind the rivalry between the ministry and the commission.

Ms Mukolwe claimed a man identified only as Kosgei had ordered some officers to subdivide land, including renewal and extension of leases, without the knowledge of NLC.

She said the current squabble between the commission and the ministry was about the management of public land, which is the constitutional function of the commission and that the NLC does not register titles.

“The commission does not carry out any registration activities. The commission only prepares everything, but the registration together with allocation is done by the ministry. We have neither done registration nor asked for the chance to register,” said Mukolwe, adding that NLC only wishes to access the registry to monitor records but not to register titles.

She said the commission has not been allowed into the land records registry at the ministry headquarters despite dropping a case at the court challenging Ngilu’s power against NLC, unconditionally.

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But Ngilu defended her ministry, saying meetings have been held involving her ministry, NLC and Commission for Implementation of the Constitution (CIC) on the clean-up at Ardhi House only to realise later the NLC had sued them.

“This is not the first time we have had a meeting with the parties. We sat down together with CIC and NLC and they knew we were going to carry out a 10-day clean-up and reorganise the files inside the registry, only to hear later that the NLC had taken us to court,” said Ngilu.

The officials spoke when they met the Lands committee of the National Assembly in Mombasa on Friday.

Main quarrel

Mukolwe said the registry was shut down unilaterally despite an earlier agreement for the ministry not to interfere with registries where NLC had an interest.

She claimed the commission had been also denied entry to parts of the premises to access files, especially on the eighth and ninth floors of Ardhi House, and that NLC commissioners still operate from tents outside Ardhi House to where they were consigned during the recent audit at the ministry.

Mukolwe said most commissioners have been idle after the audit. She accused the ministry of establishing parallel structures to rival those of the land agency, including attempting to manage public land.

She said the ministry had taken away powers recently transferred to the commission.

But Ngilu said she will continue with the clean-up and added that she is ready to work with the NLC.

“It is not mandatory that one must work in a beautiful house inside the office. What for?” posed Ngilu.