Nairobi — Taxpayers have lost more than Sh500 million in a settlement scheme initiated by First Lady Lucy Kibaki to settle squatters but which has turned into a gravy train for MPs and civil servants.

A Sunday Nation investigation has established that top government officials ignored their junior officers' advice and went ahead and paid Sh1.275 billion for the 15,000-acre piece of land in Solio on the Nyeri-Laikipia district line.

The price was exorbitant, considering that government valuers had assessed it at Sh525 million, according to documents seen by the Sunday Nation.

Apart from the initial loss of half a billion shillings, more controversy surrounds the process of allocation of the land with claims emerging that two local MPs and people in the provincial administration hijacked the sub-division process and awarded plots to their kin and allies.

Gender minister Esther Murugi, who turned down a request to supply the names of 20 people who were to benefit illegally from the programme, said she would press the authorities to publish the full list of beneficiaries.

"(A senior member of the provincial administration) called me at night (two weeks ago) and told me to present the names by 10 o'clock the following day. I declined," she said. A number of MPs from the area also boycotted a press conference that had been called by one MP from Nyeri where they were expected to endorse the exercise.

Independent probe

Following the revelation of irregularities in the allocations, civil society organisations, MPs and church leaders called for an independent probe into the process.

But Central Provincial Commissioner Japhter Rugut dismissed allegations that the allocation process was flawed as propaganda, adding that the entire process had gone on smoothly. "MPs may have opted not to attend a press conference because they do not understand the background to the exercise, but I have been involved since it started, and I can assure you only deserving cases got land," he said.

The First Lady asked the ministry of Lands to settle the squatters in early 2007. This was intended to benefit hundreds of families who were evicted from the Mt Kenya and Aberdare forests 20 years ago.

The families had lived on the roadside in pathetic conditions for two decades and had unsuccessfully appealed to the government to resettle them. Mrs Kibaki's request to ministry officials to locate land for the displaced appears to have been manipulated for the benefit of some government officers.

The process was driven by the Settlement Trustees Fund, an inter-ministerial committee made up of representatives from the ministries of Agriculture, Lands and Finance. Ministry of Lands officials identified a piece of land on the parched Laikipia plains.

Some people who have been monitoring the deal say this was a mistake. "The idea behind resettlement of squatters is that they should be given land which is agriculturally viable. The land they got is in a remote area, a very dry area and a place which, at best, can only be used for rearing livestock and not for productive small-scale farming," said Odenda Lumumba, the chairman of the Kenya Land Alliance.

Despite this, the government paid Sh85,000 an acre, a price deemed excessive, according to minutes of a ministerial tender committee meeting held on March 13, 2007 and seen by the Sunday Nation. Officials noted that ministry of Lands valuers had estimated the land to be worth Sh50,000 an acre and asked why the government should pay an additional Sh35,000.

"(The committee observed) that the offer price was higher than the Government of Kenya valued price, and the variance will be Sh525,000,000 should (the government) proceed," the minutes read in part. The committee recommended that further negotiations be held with the owners of the ranch who are listed as three businessmen of American origin - C. E. Parfet, E.J. Parfet and B. Mitchell.

Nevertheless, the government went ahead with the deal in 2007 and purchased the land for Sh1.275 billion. This payment is likely to come under parliamentary scrutiny as MPs raise questions about whether taxpayers got value for money.

Igembe MP Mithika Linturi, who is also chairman of the Public Investments Committee, said: "Where it is shown government valuers placed a certain value on a piece of land, and government went ahead to pay more than it should have, that amounts to conspiracy to defraud taxpayers, and the ministers and chief officers involved should be charged."

Although the assessment by ministry of Lands officials placed the value of the land at Sh50,000, land valuers the Sunday Nation spoke to said the government could have paid less if it were committed to negotiating for a reduction.

"As you move towards Laikipia, you can get land at a rate of between Sh20,000 and Sh30,000 per acre if you are buying in bulk as the government did," said Karume Gatenjwa, a Nyeri-based valuer. Another valuer, Josphat Mureithi, said the highest price the government would have paid per acre was Sh80,000.

The issue of the precise value of the land aside, the allocation process has stirred controversy, with local leaders saying it has not been transparent.

Religious leaders in the area have compiled a list of 49 people who they say got the land unfairly. The list cannot be published for legal reasons and because the government has not published the official list of allottees.

Mr Rugut said the official list could not be published because the law requires that letters of allotment be issued, after which the names of beneficiaries would be officially lodged in the land registry.

Local leaders allege that in addition to administrators, those who have received land irregularly include several councillors and their relatives, business people, civil servants, Administration Police officers and journalists.

The names of 21 relatives of MPs and political activists, among them six councillors allied to one MP, feature on the list. Another MP is said to have included a constituency development committee treasurer, his driver, his bodyguard and a campaigner.

A non-governmental organisation official instrumental in identifying the potential beneficiaries is alleged to have given 17 plots to friends and relatives. A Lands officer is said to have given a plot to his brother-in-law, a former district officer and a prominent businessman in Nyeri town. These allocations, if proved, are illegal because ministry of Lands documents clearly identify the targeted beneficiaries as "squatters at the Mathira roadside in Nyeri".

The Central PC said the only people who were not "squatters at the Mathira roadside in Nyeri" but who were given land are those identified as squatters on land identified for the expansion of schools and hospitals such as Mukurweini sub-district hospital.

Confronted with the issue of MPs forwarding names for consideration for settlement at Solio, Mr Rugut said: "If an MP forwards the name of a person who is genuinely needy, then the provincial administration has the discretion to consider their cases."

The explanations on the background of the case have done little to ward off the demands for a full investigation into the process to clear the air on whether only needy people were settled at Solio and whether the government got value for money from the deal.

The Catholic church is among those monitoring the deal, according to Nyeri Archdiocese Justice and Peace Commission secretary Simon Wanjohi. He said Nyeri Archbishop Peter Kairo had instructed him to follow up the issue.

"If the government thinks the exercise to resettle the squatters was transparent, why has it failed to make public the list of the beneficiaries? We need a thorough investigation," he said.