Parliament and the Treasury are entangled in a dispute over control of a prime city building in Nairobi's central business district.
In a new report by the Auditor-General, the Parliamentary Service Commission (PSC) accuses the Treasury of refusing to hand it ownership documents for Protection House, adding that the exchequer insists that the commission buys the property at market value.
While Protection House, a building located between Parliament Road and County Road, is managed by PSC and listed among properties it owns, Treasury is in possession of its title deed and has been reluctant to transfer the same, PSC has revealed.
The building is currently registered in the name of the office of the Treasury's Principal Secretary (PS).
“The PS, National Treasury is currently in possession of the title deed. The property was allocated to the PSC by the Office of the President.
“However, the National Treasury is reluctant to transfer the property in favour of the commission. The National Treasury insists that the commission ought to acquire the property at Market value,” PSC reveals in the report.
PSC now says it has resorted to talks to have the building transferred to it at a negligible value through an economic principle called “peppercorn consideration”.
In the report, it also emerged that the PSC lacks ownership documents for the main Parliament Buildings and Parliament Mausoleum, which are registered under the Commissioner for Lands.
Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu previously raised concerns over PSC’s lack of title documents for a number of its properties, putting them at risk since they become prone to being grabbed or encroached.
MPs in a June 2024 report directed that the PSC liaise with the National Land Commission (NLC) and obtain ownership documents of its properties.
In a follow-up report by the Auditor-General, the PSC confirmed that of the 14 properties it owns, it still lacks ownership documents for five properties.
Properties owned by the PSC include Bunge Tower, main Parliament buildings, main Parliament grounds (mausoleum), the two speakers’ official residences, Red Cross Building, County House and Continental House, all located around Parliament.
The PSC also owns Parliament stores and parking, CPST New Block, Imani House, Red Cross Building, Juvenile Court Building, County Hall and Protection House, the main bone of contention.
It, however, says that among properties it lacks ownership documents for are County Hall and Juvenile Court building.
PSC says while it has been in control of the properties, they are currently registered in the name of the commissioner for lands as has been traditionally the case for properties belonging to government institutions.
“However, under the new laws, specifically, Section 53 of the Parliamentary Service Act, 2019, the properties are required to be registered in the name of the commission. The commission has written severally to the Ministry of Lands and NLC, requesting for the issuance of the title documents for the aforementioned properties,” PSC says.
The commission, however, notes that the process to get the properties transferred to it has been slow, with a meeting initially scheduled for November 2023 between it and the Ministry of Lands having been cancelled.
“The commission is therefore following up on the issuance of title documents for the above-mentioned properties from the Ministry of Lands and NLC,” PSC says.
