The National Land Commission (NLC) issued invalidation notices for title deeds of 40,000 acres of land previously allocated to the Kenya Defense Force (KDF), but currently possessed by private developers.
Following investigations, the commission identified several parcels of land that belonged to KDF but were now in the hands of private developers.
“The commission recommends to the Chief Land Registrar to revoke the purported titles issued and vest the land to the principal secretary, Ministry of Defence,” NLC Vice Chairperson Abigael Mukolwe asserted.
Part of the revoked title deeds pertains to 29 acres in Karen, 2.51 acres at the Kabete barracks, 4,000 acres in Eldoret and 29.85 acres in Nanyuki.
The NLC directed the Chief Land Registrar to recover the ownership paperwork on behalf of the KDF.
According to a report dated January 24, 2019, the commission established that the parcels of land belonged to the KDF and was unscrupulously allotted to private developers.
The detailed report was sent to the Department of Defence and all the parties involved, including Lands Principal Secretary Nicholas Muraguri, the Chief Lands Registrar and the commission’s director of enforcement.
The Commission, therefore, called for nullification of any ownership documents issued in regards to the parcels of land in question, and subsequent blotting out of the deeds from official records.
Mukolwe stated that the entire process of land allocation was deeply flawed and susceptible to fraud.
She cited the 4000 acres of land in Eldoret claimed to belong to two private developers, as a clear example.
“The military land had already been gazetted for the Recruit Training School and Kenya Ordnance Factory. You cannot allocate land which has already been gazetted for military use,” she stated.
In addition, 34,000 acres at Archer’s post, Samburu was recovered following a new survey and rightfully given back to the KDF as it was previously meant to be a military training centre.
Individuals mentioned as owners of the parcels of land in Karen and Nanyuki failed to turn up for the public hearings while the directors of Githuamba Limited, who laid claim to the parcel at Kabete barracks, sent a written submission.
The Director of Larisoro ranch in Samburu County agreed to surrender the section overlapping with military land, with Leseru Tebson Farmers Society giving back titles to 4,000 acres in Eldoret.
The Commission declared that suspected culprits in the illegal allocations would be referred to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions for further action.