Lawmakers have raised concerns that State corporations not only lack crucial ownership documents for some of the lands but have also failed to constitute various boards to oversee various operations of the entities.
The MPs raised concerns that several litigations concerning ownership of land of State Corporations and other legal matters have been pending before the courts of law for inordinately long despite resolutions of the National Assembly calling for the expeditious conclusion of the cases.
In a report tabled in the National Assembly, the Public Investments Committee on Social Services Administration and Agriculture (PIC-SSAA) chaired by Navakholo MP Emmanuel Wangwe, also raised concerns over the failure by the corporations to surrender imprests, delays in submission of documents to the Auditor General Nancy Gathungu for consideration as well as low budgetary provisions despite their budgets being initially approved by the exchequer.
Specifically, the MPs noted concerns that the Child Welfare Society of Kenya (CWSK) and the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) do not have title documents for some of their land and in other instances, their lands have been grabbed by illegal private developers while Kenya Institute for Public Policy, Research and Analysis although has a title deed for its land, it faces limitations due to fencing done by the department of veterinary services thus obstructing access.
To this end, the committee which was scrutinizing the Auditor General’s reports of various entities, directed the Cabinet Secretary for Land, Housing and Urban Development and the Chairman, of the National Land Commission to within the next two months put caveats on all the parcels of State Corporations land that are in private hands and report back to the National Assembly.
The committee further directed Accounting officers to within the next six months through NLC prioritize and expedite resolving ownership issues surrounding parcels of land belonging to their State Corporations and report its status back to the National Assembly.
The National Assembly on its part, the committee said, should enact a law prescribing that all public land ownership documents should centrally be held under the custody of the National Treasury for safekeeping.
