The government is set to relocate the Kenya Technical Trainers College (KTTC) away from the United Nations (UN) offices based in Gigiri, Nairobi County.
The college will be relocated at a cost of Ksh4 billion to the land that has been acquired along Ngong Road which belongs to the University of Nairobi.
While appearing before parliament previously, the Principal Secretary for the State Department for Vocational and Technical Training, Margaret Mwakima, revealed that the cabinet had approved the relocation of the college after negotiations which were started in 2017.
“We have negotiated on a win-win basis. The need for land for the diplomatic enclave is more than what we had prepared to provide.
“If we were to release the land, the only option was for us to get the structures along Ngong road,” she stated.
The PS explained that the college was situated in an area considered to be a diplomatic enclave hence posing a security risk to the UN offices.
As part of the Vienna Convention, Kenya is expected to provide security to diplomatic missions in the country.
The UN offices in Gigiri serve as the headquarters for the global body in Africa and was established in 1996.
“Signatories to the Vienna Convention, to which Kenya is a party is required to identify an area with proper security, good infrastructure, proper social setup among others to house diplomatic missions,” she explained.
In 2017, Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiangi who was serving as the Education Cabinet Secretary then selected a committee to oversee negotiations for the relocation of the college.
However, the move was opposed by the Commission on Administrative Justice whose members argued that the government had not followed due process in the relocation of KTTC to UoN's Kenya Science campus along Ngong Road.
“We note with concern that if that is the case, then the government will be in breach of the law that governs public land. Beyond issues of transfer, there is a need to compensate those affected.
“The regime of acquiring public land is clear: it is held in trust by the national or county government and transferred with the approval of the National Land Commission," the Ombudsman stated then.
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