Nairobi News

NewsWhat's Hot

Government to unveil all grabbed land in Nairobi

By OTIATO GUGUYU January 21st, 2015 2 min read

A list of all public land under review will be released next week as Lands Cabinet Secretary Charity Ngilu and National Lands Commission Chairman Mohamed Swazuri move to act on illegal acquisation of land.

NLC has also asked all schools with cases of land grabbing to inform the commission and institute procedures for review.

People holding titles to public utility land have been put on notice to surrender them with Mrs Ngilu and Mr Swazuri announcing that titling for public land is underway.

The two, who were at the receiving end of a salvo from President Uhuru Kenyatta on Tuesday, supervised the demolitions at Lang’ata Primary School and a parcel in Westlands on Wedsnesday.

The Lands ministry has combined efforts with the Ministry of Devolution to level the playground in Lang’ata Primary School and fence it off.

The school might be the first to acquire a title deed after the Director of Survey Cesare Mbaria who was on site establishes the boundary beacons.

“We are here to survey and establish the beacons then erect a wall to safeguard the school property in the next three days,” Mr Mbaria said.

He added that the survey at Our Lady of Mercy Girls Secondary School in Shauri Moyo had also commenced and a report will be released in the next one week.

Ms Ngilu and Swazuri then visited contested land at Processional Way near State House where construction was ongoing and requested time to study files on the contested property.

PROTESTS

They later visited a parcel of land along Peponi Road in Westlands that has supposedly been built on a watershed.

The land in Westlands was at the centre of activism by the late Nobel Laureate and founder of the Green Belt Movement the late Prof Wangari Maathai.

It had apparently fallen into the hands of the Presbyterian Church of East Africa (PCEA) who had commenced work on it.

Early last year, PCEA moved quickly to fence off the land under heavy guard with plans to develop it which did not augur well with the environmental groups sparking protests in July.

The CS and the NLC chairman also visited Kibagari river valley in Lower Kabate another fragile ecosystem that is under threat from land grabbers.

Mrs Ngilu and Swazuri were accompanied with National Youth Service Director General Dr Nelson Githinji and his service men and women who conducted the demolitions.

They said they would extend the campaign to Naivasha, Nakuru, Kisumu and Mombasa to reclaim all public land.

President Uhuru Kenyatta on Tuesday singled out the Ministry of Lands and the National Lands Commission for dragging their feet in resolving the Lang’ata Primary School land saga that led to ugly protests on Monday.

The Lands Minister on her Twitter account quickly admitted fault and promised that her ministry will now be proactive.

“It’s highly regrettable that children were teargased yesterday, this should never have happened. I accept we should have taken action earlier,” Ngilu said.