Why Lands Cabinet Secretary Charity Ngilu’s actions are puzzling

By Francis Ayieko

Kenya: There is something curious about the suspension of services at the Lands ministry that started on Monday this week.

Lands Cabinet Secretary Charity Ngilu said the closure of the offices was to facilitate reforms in the ministry. She said that during the closure, the ministry would undertake an audit of land records at the central registry.

Among other things, she said, the reforms would involve an audit and proper arrangement of land records as well as installation of cameras “so that we get to know who walks into the registries and who is doing what”.

Ngilu could be well meaning in her latest move. However, there are three issues that raise curiosity in the whole affair. One, why is it necessary for such an important ministry to shut its doors on wananchi for a whole two weeks just to put its records in order?

Confusing

Two, it is confusing for Ngilu to call the activities they are planning to undertake during the closure — such as an audit of the records at the central registry as well as other things like installing cameras — land reforms.

Three, claims that the decision to temporarily shut down operations of the ministry was reached without involving the National Land Commission (NLC), which is housed at Ardhi House, and whose operations are also being directly affected by the closure, does not sound right.

On Monday, the impact of the shutdown was severe as many Kenyans who had come from various parts of the country to seek services at Ardhi House were turned away. Why didn’t the ministry come up with a method that would allow it to undertake the changes and at the same time continue rendering services to the public?

But even more serious were claims that the minister decided to unilaterally close the offices without consulting the NLC. Reports indicated that armed police placed on the fourth, sixth and ninth floors of Ardhi House on Monday barred officials of the National Land Commission from accessing their offices, prompting a standoff.

This is something that could have been avoided had Ngilu and the commission agreed before such a measure was effected. The commission’s claim that they were not consulted — if true — does not augur well for the running of land affairs.

The main question, however, is: Will Kenyans see changes in the delivery of services at the Lands ministry after the offices re-open?

Land records are in such a disorderly state that those doing a simple search are forced to wait for two or more weeks. It takes months in some cases to locate a correspondence file, grossly delaying land transactions.

Perhaps this is why on Monday, the Chairman of the Land Development and Governance Institute Ibrahim Mwathane, seemed to agree with Ngilu’s move.

“If we have to establish an efficient and computer-based land management system, records must be audited and put in order. We, however, must do so in the shortest possible period to minimise inconveniences in service delivery,” he said in a short text message.

End result

The end result, he said, should be of interest not only to Kenyans but also to both Lands ministry and the commission “hence the two should put their egos and differences aside and work towards giving us an efficient system”.

True, efficient systems are what we need at the ministry. However, how does the latest move by Ngilu differ from the ministry’s pet subject of digitising land records that they have been singing about for eons, but with no tangible outcome to show for it?

Land reforms are about creating systems that work. What makes Ngilu’s declaration that the closure is to “facilitate reforms” curious and confusing is that reform is a process, not an event achieved after closing offices for ten working days.

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