[Source: Daily Nation, by Nyambega Gisesa]
Corrupt officers at the National Land Commission (NLC) have created a cartel in which almost all services are obtained after payment of bribes running into millions of shillings, investigation by the Sunday Nation reveals.
Some junior officers, including those serving tea, office messengers, clerks and security officers, have grown rich overnight, benefiting from the corruption networks with a number of them owning palatial homes and driving top-of-the-range cars. The term of the previous commission ended in February this year but the secretariat continues to operate amid various cases facing current and former officials in court.
The well-connected junior officers, who have been working in cahoots with a section of their seniors, are said to be untouchable within the commission.
Worryingly, former commissioners and senior officials, some of whom have already been charged in court for engaging in graft, are said to be still pulling strings within the commission where corruption goes on unabated.
“The rot is so much that only a detailed investigation, including a lifestyle audit, will help cleanse the image of the commission,” an insider who requested not to be named told Sunday Nation.
The insider, who is privy to matters concerning the commission, said that both the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) and the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) have been notified of the web of corruption at the land agency.
Already, the EACC has finalised investigations into one of the reported matters which touches on the fraudulent and exaggerated payment of hundreds of millions of shillings for the compensation of land for a road project being undertaken by the Kenya National Highways Authority.
The anti-graft body is also probing compensation for the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) Phase 2A which run into billions of shillings. Further, Dr Nicholas Muraguri, the Lands Principal Secretary, last week reportedly raised concerns after receiving complaints from individuals who said they were being asked to give bribes before they receive their compensation monies for the compulsory acquisition of their lands for the construction of the railway line.
Other than the fraudulent compensations, the Sunday Nation encountered frequent cases of graft in the departments of land administration and management and that of legal affairs and enforcement.
[Full article: Daily Nation, by Nyambega Gisesa]
