Members of Parliament have raised alarm over the loss and subsequent irregular transfer of a prime piece of government land valued at Ksh24 billion near the UN Headquarters and the United States Embassy in Nairobi.
The National Assembly’s Public Investment Committee on Education and Governance, chaired by Bumula MP Jack Wamboka, questioned the Kenya School of TVET (KSTVET) Chief Executive Edwin Tarno over the prime property after it emerged that the ownership documents could not be traced.
During the proceedings on Wednesday, August 6, Tarno revealed that the institution is yet to receive the title deed despite writing numerous letters to the Treasury and the Ministry of Lands through its parent Ministry of Education.
“We have written several letters through the ministries of Education and Land. Lands Principal Secretary replied, saying they are in the process of following up on the matter," Tarno told the committee when he appeared before it to respond to audit queries on the school’s books of accounts for the year to June 2024.
He added that despite sending three letters dated May 4, 2023, June 2, 2025, and June 15, 2025 detailing frustrations in securing the title for the KSTVET, the institution was not successful in receiving the title.
The saga surrounding the prime piece of land arose after Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu questioned the irregular transfer of school land valued at Ksh24 billion, for which the school forwarded the original title deed to the Education CS, through a letter on September 9, 2016.
Further, Gathungu revealed that the school’s management was notified of the loss of the original certificate of lease through a letter dated February 2, 2021.
“However, the title of the land was transferred on February 16, 2022, to the Treasury CS as a trustee for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,” Gathungu said. She also disclosed that the involvement of the school’s Council in the transfer could not be confirmed.
Consequently, the committee summoned Treasury, Education, and Lands Cabinet Secretaries John Mbadi, Julius Migos, and Alice Wahome over the brewing land scandal.
The three were directed to appear before PIC to shed light on how the land belonging to the Kenya School of TVET, formerly Kenya Technical Trainers College (KTTC), was mysteriously transferred to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs after the title deed was reported lost after surrender to the Ministry of Education.
Of specific interest to the committee was why the three CSs failed to implement a House directive issued on March 15, 2023, requiring that the ownership of the land be returned to the school.
“We made a recommendation that was adopted by the House in 2023 that the land revert to the school. Why has it not been implemented? I direct the Clerk to write to the Cabinet Secretaries for Treasury, Education, and Lands to appear before us to explain why the recommendation of this House has not been implemented,” Mr Wamboka ruled without providing timelines.
The AG had noted that when concluding her audit in May 2024, the directive by PIC to transfer ownership had not yet been implemented.
Before issuing summons to the CSs, PIC had in June 2023 recommended that the Education CS conduct investigations on the circumstances surrounding the loss of the Certificate of Lease at the ministry and take administrative action on those entrusted with its custody and report to the National Assembly within three months of the adoption of the report.
The summons comes at a time when CSs are in the bad books of Parliament, with several CSs, such as Mbadi, accused of frequently skipping summons by the legislative arm of government without providing a solid reason.
