Kalro risks losing Sh18.2 billion land over lack of title deeds

Auditor General Nancy Gathungu. [File, Standard]

Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organisation (Kalro) risks losing Sh18.2 billion land to illegal settlers, a recent audit has revealed.

Auditor General Nancy Gathungu in the Financial Year 2022-2023 report, questioned Kalro’s ownership of land after it failed to produce title deeds for auditing.

According to the report, Kalro failed to resolve prior land issues.

The property includes a beach plot valued at Sh56,734,160, which the organisation did not have a title deed.

According to the report, Kalro said that the land was illegally subdivided into five plots, but the Commissioner of Lands revoked the allotments.

A private developer filed a suit in court over ownership of the beach plots, but the matter had not been determined as of June 30, 2023, and ownership of the plots could not be confirmed.

Further, the audit noted that part of a 1418-hectare of land where a National Beef Research Centre is located is on the verge of being grabbed.

The Auditor General said Kalro records, indicate that in 1984, a farmer surrendered 230 acres of land to the Government, and it was agreed that he would be compensated with an equivalent acreage of vacant land at the Beef Research Institute.

The farmer was however allotted 270 acres an excess of 40 acres.

Further, the farmer violated the conditions of the land exchange and occupied the developed part of the land, leading to the destruction of property belonging to Kalro.

“The said part of the land has since been subdivided into plots for sale to the public. In addition, records provided indicated that another farmer agreed to surrender 320 acres of his land in Nakuru but during exchange and transfer he irregularly acquired an extra 152 acres of Kalro land,” read the report.

Gathungu noted that illegal settlers have been encroaching on the Beef Research Institute land in Lanet, Nakuru county, since 2014.

“There is therefore a high risk that the organisation may lose parts of this land in Lanet,” reads the report.

Further, Kisii county government has taken over part of the organisation's land meant for Food Crop Research Institute Kisii and was constructing the governor’s residence on approximately two acres of the grabbed land while a cancer centre was illegally being constructed in another parcel estimated at one acre.

The audit revealed that part of Kalro's land measuring approximately 100 hectares was illegally acquired by informal developers in 2000.

Further, part of the land was used as a dumping site by a county government and construction of a power station.

The Auditor General revealed that the organisation’s six parcels of land valued at Sh2, 932,785,960 owned by the defunct Kenya Agricultural Research Institute did not have ownership documents.

Gathungu noted that in January 2011, some individuals had invaded the organisation's land in Naivasha, forcing it to move to court to have them evicted.

The court ruled in favour of Kalro on March 29, 2012, but the illegal settlers did not vacate the land.

The organisation, also owns 142.06 hectares of land, which has a title deed but has been encroached by illegal settlers, preventing use of the land for agricultural research.

The audit revealed that 56 other parcels of land under the Sugar Research Institute  did not have ownership documents.

“The property, plant, and equipment balance excludes the undetermined value of parcels of land measuring 99 hectares and 127 hectares, which the Coffee Research Institute used for farming. The titles to the parcels of land were in the name of the Coffee Board of Kenya (CBK) which has since merged to form the Agricultural Food Authority,” reads the audit report in part.

The Agricultural Mechanization Services (AMS) - a department within the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries, and Co-operatives has occupied a portion of Kalro land and put up buildings.

According to the audit report Kalro management clarified that the value of the buildings and improvements by the AMS was not included in the assets balance, and AMS was devolved from the national government to the county government.

The county government had, however, neither signed any lease agreement nor paid any rent to Kalro.

A 20-acre piece of land developed by the Tea Research Institute with an estimated value of Sh8,430,634 the report revealed was excluded from the list of property.

The Auditor General said the organisation's residential building at Kisii Sub-Centre of Coffee Research Institute, was taken over by the Kisii county government without offering compensation.

Gathungu said Kalro had failed to indicate steps taken to replace a misplaced title deed of land valued at Sh117 million being occupied by Coffee Research Institute.

A review of the human resource management records revealed that most of the staff are ageing and the organisation is understaffed.

Kalro has 1,725 staff out of the authorised 3,612.

“An analysis of staff ages as of June 30, 2023, revealed that 58 per cent of the organisation’s workforce was aged between 51 and 65 years,” reads the report.

Gathungu noted that Kalro did not provide detailed succession strategies to ensure retention of key skills.