Land worth Sh1.2 billion bought to resettle Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in various parts of the country remains undistributed for close to a decade.
Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu says in a report that the Land Settlement Fund spent millions of shillings to purchase land in Nakuru, Kilifi and Mombasa that have remained undistributed to the IDPs and informal settlers.
The Fund was established under the Land Act, 2012 to purchase land for the settlement of squatters, displaced persons, development projects, conservation and any other cause leading to movement and displacement of persons.
The Fund is also used for purchase of private land for settlement programmes.
It is overseen by a Board of Trustees comprising Cabinet Secretaries for Lands as the chairperson, National Treasury, Agriculture, Environment, Internal Security and a representative of the National Land Commission (NLC).
The Auditor-General report shows that the Fund spent Sh396.9 million to purchase land in Nakuru, Sh377 million to buy a farm in Kilifi and Sh377 million to procure land in Mombasa, bringing the total to Sh1.15 billion.
The report shows the property in Nakuru was purchased in 2012 to settle IDPs while the Kilifi and Mombasa land, both purchased in 2020, was for the resettlement of informal settlers.
Ms Gathungu said the Fund spent Sh396,984,000 million to buy Kisima Njoro land in Nakuru County in October 2012 but had not settled the IDPs nine years down the line.
Ms Gathungu said a physical verification of the land in September 2021 revealed that the land had not been surveyed or subdivided and the beneficiaries had not been settled nine years after the purchase of the land.
“Consequently, the objective for which the land was acquired and value for money had not been achieved as at June 30, 2021,” Ms Gathungu said in a report tabled in Parliament.
Victims of the 2007/08 post-election violence have for years asked the government to resettle them after being uprooted from their homes following chaos that erupted in the disputed presidential election that left more than 1,100 people killed.
Previous efforts by the government to resettle about 1,000 IDP families at Rose Farm in 2010 failed due to opposition from residents.
The residents and their leaders held demonstrations to protest the plan, forcing the government to abandon the project.
In Kilifi, Ms Gathungu said the Fund had not distributed land acquired at a cost of Sh377 million for the resettlement of informal settlers.
She said the Fund purchased Mikanjuni Farm but the land was still listed as undistributed.
Ms Gathungu said a field visit to the farm in October 2021 showed the land was still listed as undistributed.
“No justification was given for not distributing and settling the informal settlers,” Ms Gathungu said in an audit for year to June 2021.
