The government has moved to regulate pricing of land to contain exaggeration of prices by speculators, especially in areas earmarked for huge infrastructure projects.
Lands Principal Secretary Mariamu el Maaey told People Daily the National Land Value Bill is in Parliament while the ministry is developing the Land Value Index to provide statistical information on the value of land in different parts of the country.
“Land value is not static. It keeps on changing and so we need experts to tell us how much a particular piece of land will cost in three months, one year or even two years.
This will help us make a decision so that when we invest, we do it from a point of knowledge and not to be surprised because the price can go up or even come down.
The Land Value Bill will assist the government in land acquisition and investment so that there is right valuation of land instead of being driven by speculation,” the PS said.
The PS said the ministry had mapped core areas in Nairobi using that tool and the price index will be ready by the end of the year before being rolled out to the rest of the country. Transport PS Irungu Nyakera said the government had faced challenges from owners and speculators who hiked prices whenever the government showed interest in land.
“When we were building Thika Highway we paid Sh33 billion for land compensation. In the expansion of Malindi Airport, the land cost Sh4 billion while the project itself cost Sh2 billion. Acquisition of land has impacted negatively on the implementation of infrastructure projects, the PS noted.
In a related development, Lands CS Prof Jacob Kaimenyi and the National Land Commission (NLC) chairman Dr Muhammad Swazuri were yesterday at pains to defend the scorecard of their respective institutions.
Leaders, investors and members of the public accused the two agencies of failing to bring sanity in the sector. Speaking during the State House Summit on Land, the two struggled to explain why it had proved difficult for the government to address historical land injustices and recover public lands from grabbers.
The duo was also accused of doing little to prevent illegal occupation of privately-owned land by squatters, who sometimes use documents from the ministry to claim ownership.
The famous Lang’ata Primary School tussle was used as a point of reference on how blatant grabbing of public land has been a rule rather than an exception.
The Ministry and the Commission, however, said they have issued titles to at least 17 per cent of the over 29,000 public primary and secondary schools and that the issue of Lang’ata Primary has been addressed and the land reverted to the school.
“We have also recovered all the land grabbed in Karura Forest and Eastleigh market. We are now looking at Woodly to recover land illegally acquired,” Swazuri said. Nairobi Governor Dr Evans Kidero also sought an explanation on the controversial ownership of 5,000 acres of land in Kayole.
“The County Government bought 5,000 acres of land from Kayole Estate in 1971. In the nineties, the army invaded it and took 3,000 acres without due recourse to any compensation and four weeks ago, they took the remaining 2,000 acres and blocked a road that passes through the land and nobody, even the police dares challenge them,” he explained.
However, Kaimenyi said his ministry “must look at the context of the background behind which the land was acquired. In law, the government can compulsorily acquire land for health purposes, for security and for all other good reasons,” he said.
“The National Land Commission will look at the circumstances and take action. We shall have zero tolerance to this grabbing mania.” Dagoretti South MP Dennis Waweru accused the duo for failing to protect privately owned land in Nairobi from invaders.
His colleague, Mwingi North MP Joe Mutambu said herders from the Somali community encroached on land in the neighbouring Ukambani region. Kaimenyi said at least 2.4 million title deeds had been issued in the past three years at the cost of Sh4.46 billion and the digitization of land data was ongoing.
“We solved the Waitiki Farm issue, with over 7,000 people getting title deeds and the new members of Land Control Boards in 40 counties have been gazetted.” The ministry has also invited the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission to carry out a systems audit to identify the malpractices and provide solutions.
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