Why City Hall dropped plan to buy Sh221m cemetery land
Nairobi county government has dropped a proposed plan to buy land in Kitengela for a new cemetery.
The money, which was included in the 2016/2017 budget, will now be reallocated to other services to allow for wider consultations .
City Hall had set Sh221 million to purchase a 120-acre piece of land in Kitengela to replace the Lang’ata cemetery which was declared full two decades ago.
The proposed purchase had been slipped into the budget by county officials who labelled it as part of the Coroner Services Unit. This is why it was never noticed during the public hearings on the budget.
Previous attempts by former the Nairobi City Council to buy land for a new cemetery failed due to corrupt dealings, including Sh283 million spent to buy land in Mavoko, Machakos County, whose actual value was Sh24 million.
The latest attempt was to be City Hall’s third effort at looking for land for a new cemetery.
NO CONSULTATION
County Executive Health Bernard Muia told Nairobi News that the Sh221 million in the budget had been allocated without consultation.
“It is unfortunate that the department concerned was never consulted over a purchase of cemetery land and I just saw it on the newspapers,” said Dr Muia.
Dr Muia clarified that the land is not in Kajiado County, as stipulated in the budget, but across the border of Nairobi and Kajiado counties.
He added that that the money will now be reallocated to other projects to allow for consultation with relevant stakeholders like the National Lands Commission.
The Nairobi County assembly health committee led by the chairman Manoah Mboku warned the county treasury against diverting the funds set for the cemetery to other departments. He wants the money to be spent in the health docket to pay for drugs and other essentials.
In its latest budget, City Hall has also set aside Sh29 million for the completion of a perimeter wall at Lang’ata cemetery and Sh10 million for rehabilitation of the same.
