Bondo MP Gideon Ochanda questioned why public land title deeds, including those for schools, were being stored by the National Treasury instead of the National Land Commission (NLC), as legally mandated.
Speaking in Parliament on Tuesday July 29, Ochanda revealed that according to Article 67 of the Constitution, the NLC is the sole body empowered to manage public land on behalf of the national and county governments.
He argues that storing title deeds in the Treasury undermines this mandate and risks land mismanagement.
"There is a general and bigger problem with the issue of public land. If you are critically looking at what we are doing, including state corporations, it is very wrong. What we do is that, a State cooperation buys land, the NLC doesn't know," the MP said.
"Land for a school, for example, is a public land, but where are the titles repossessed? The titles of public schools are in the Treasury, so what is the Treasury doing with the whole issue if they are not mandated to look at issues of public land? Why should we have titles in Treasury? Why not have them in NLC?," the MP continued.
Ochanda singled out Kenya Railways as a major violator, alleging that the corporation has been purchasing land without notifying the NLC.
"Railways is one of the State cooperations that has a lot of money to pay for land in as much as they are losing their land sometimes not in a manner that we know, but they are the ones who are paying a lot of money in terms of new purchases of land," the MP continued.
The MP has called on the NLC to take over all public land and establish an effective inventory system to prevent land mismanagement.
''What is happening that the NLC cannot have an inventory of all the public land we have in this country because immediately we are haphazard, we will keep losing them and then all manners of complaints will start coming left, right and centre,'' the MP warned.
The concerns come at a time when the country is tensed over the recent move by the Cabinet to approve the sale of the Kenya Pipeline Company.
In a Cabinet dispatch released on Tuesday, July 29, the government will be listing KPC at the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE).
The move aimed to enable the private sector and industry experts to drive growth, efficiency, and innovation.
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