The government has acquired the 50-acre land from Bishop David Kariuki Ngari after making payments of S82 million in January 2018 and further Sh52 million.
Despite the NLC paying for the land in full on behalf of the government in January 2018, the State was yet to secure the title deed.
The State has secured a Sh135.47 million land in Murang’a County that was subject of an ownership dispute.
The government has acquired the 50-acre land from Bishop David Kariuki Ngari after making payments of S82 million in January 2018 and further Sh52 million.
The government acquired the land in January 2018 from Chosen Builders Investments limited but the land title deed had been charged to Family Bank.
Despite the NLC paying for the land in full on behalf of the government in January 2018, the State was yet to secure the title deed.
The government had been unable to secure the land owing to the protracted ownership dispute between Mr Ngari, Family Bank and the Asset Recovery Agency (ARA).
Bishop Ngari is associated with the collapsed Ekeza Sacco.
The Asset Recovery Agency (ARA) had moved to court to put a caveat on the land to secure the interests of the government.
The government purchased the land to develop a sanitary land refill project.
“The land now belongs to the government. What remains are administrative issues like surveying and subdivision," Housing and Urban Development Principal Secretary Charles Hinga told the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chaired by Ugunja MP Opiyo Wandayi.
The project was aimed at solving the solid waste management challenges in Murang’a, Kiambu and Nairobi counties.
Parliament started probing the transaction after the Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu flagged it in a special audit on the compulsory acquisitions made by the National Land Commission (NLC) on behalf of other government agencies for the period 2014/15 and 2016/17.
The World Bank had already pumped Sh800 million into the project by the time the Auditor General raised concern.
The audit established that the land-part of the 300-acre land-LR No. Mitubiri/Wempa Block 1/6824 is owned by Mr Ngari who had charged the title deed to Family Bank on account of the Sh408 million loan facility his company, Chosen Builders Investments limited. acquired from the Bank.
Mr Hinga told PAC that the ownership dispute has since been resolved after a consent order to hive off the 50 acres from the 300-acre land was signed and filed in court.
The signing of the consent involved ARA, Family Bank and Attorney-General on behalf of the State Department for Housing.
“The bishop was not a party to the consent. I can also tell this committee that the government does not have any pending issues with the bishop. He was a willing seller and we paid the money for the acquisition of the land to his account held at the Family Bank,” the PS said.
Mr Wandayi directed the State Department to file monthly updates to the committee on the pending administrative issues on the transfer of the land.
“We have to be sure that the interests of the people have been safeguarded,” he said.
The PS said that he had already communicated to the Ministry of Lands to expedite the issuance of the title deed.
The PS assured the committee that the dispute had not affected the relationship with the World Bank but the international lender had raised the ownership issue and urged the government to solve it immediately.
About 7,800 Ekeza Sacco Society limited depositors had filed complaints to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) alleging fraud, theft and misappropriation of their investments to the tune of Sh1.05 billion.
