[Source: Daily Nation, by Sam Kiplagat]
The National Land Commission (NLC) was Friday put on the spot after a three-judge bench ruled that it misled government officials who sanctioned payment of Sh1.5 billion to a businessman for land that belongs to the State.
Justices Elijah Obaga, Benard Eboso and Kossy Bor further said the payment made by the Ministry of Education to businessman Francis Mburu was irregular, as the land in which two public schools stand belongs to the government.
Several government officials, including Cabinet Secretaries and Principal Secretaries, have previously appeared before Parliament to shed light on the matter.
NLC moved to court last year seeking to determine whether the land was private as claimed by Mr Mburu or whether it was public land as submitted by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC).
The commission further wanted to find out whether the payment made was regular and whether the balance of the amount should be paid out.
NLC further said it completed all the legal processes of compulsory acquisition, on July 18, 2017, and the Education Principal Secretary wrote a letter to the Treasury asking it to process the compensation for the acquisition of land in which two public schools – Drive Inn primary and Ruaraka secondary – stand.
In their ruling, the judges said looking at the record, they did not agree with the claims that the land is private. According to the judges, a search is not a conclusive document on ownership.
Further, the judges said the alleged compulsory acquisition was illegal as land that is already public cannot be compulsorily acquired.
The court also faulted the commission for filing the case, saying it was meaningless because they had already completed the process.
The judges said Mr Mburu and the two companies claiming the land did not explain why they did not pursue compensation in the 1980s when the school was established, only to pursue it decades later.
Evidence tabled in court showed that the Treasury, in a letter dated November 13, 2017, authorised the Education ministry to spend Sh1.5 billion in the compulsory acquisition of the land pending regularisation of the expenditure in the financial year 2017/18 Supplementary II Estimates. The balance would be paid in the next financial year.
[Full article: Daily Nation, by Sam Kiplagat]
