Swazuri paid fraudsters Sh1 billion for public land

National Land Commission (NLC) chairman Muhammad Swazuri colluded with fraudsters to pay more than Sh1 billion in compensation claims for land that belonged to the government, MPs heard yesterday.

Land Cabinet Secretary Jacob Kaimenyi said the commission may have used “fake or non-existent”  letters of allotments, Part Development Plans (PDP) and Survey Plans as a basis for making compensation worth Sh300 million for five parcels of land that lie along the railway corridor reserve in Embakasi.

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Prof Kaimenyi told the National Assembly’s Land committee that his ministry could not authenticate documents presented by petitioner Mugo Njeru for compensation of land LR No. 15100. The NLC went ahead to pay Tanzanian Grain Handler-Bakressa Kenya Limited Sh82.3 million instead of Mr Mugo for LR No. 15100, which is subject to bribery claims.

“We have checked our records and found that in as much as the PDP is in our records; it was never approved and could not be used as a basis for allocation of any land.

“There is no evidence of such a letter in our records, the letter is not authentic,” Prof Kaimenyi said in response to a letter purported to have been written by the director of physical planning.

He said a copy of PDP produced by Mr Mugo and which is purported to have been prepared by the director of physical planning does not exist in the ministry’s records and therefore not authentic.

Kenya Railways Corporation (KRC) managing director Atanas Maina reinforced Prof Kaimenyi’s position, insisting that the corporation had protested to NLC over plans to compensate parcels of land that belong to the corporation.

Mr Maina refuted a claim by Dr Swazuri that the land in question did not belong to the corporation hence the payments.

“From our records and recollections, we didn’t receive a letter from Dr Swazuri or NLC asking us to confirm whether or not this particular parcels- LR 9084, 9085, 9086, 9087 and 9088 belonged to KRC. I have not issued a letter to NLC disowning those properties,” Mr Maina told MPs during an inquiry into Mr Mugo’s petition seeking Dr Swazuri’s removal from office.

Dr Swazuri had earlier informed MPs that he approved payments to part of the plots after Mr Maina wrote to confirm that the property in question did not belong to KRC.

He promised to table the letter, but was later declared hostile when he returned to inform MPs that he had secured a court order stopping the committee from proceeding to hear the petition seeking his removal from office.

“As custodian of KRC properties, I would be the last person to disown our property, but I can’t also go claiming property that is not ours,” Mr Maina said as he tabled a letter that KRC wrote to NLC, warning it against making payments for properties that are on railway reserves.

“We protested to NLC not to pay properties LR 23222 to LR 22230 within the Embakasi Train Marshalling Yard. We wrote to NLC and submitted the plan of what we knew was marshalling yard. As far as we are concerned, we haven’t paid. We would be very surprised if NLC has made payments,” he said.

The committee’s temporary chairman, George Oner, drew the attention of Mr Maina to a payment schedule indicating that the parcels had been compensated to a tune of Sh1 billion.