Fred Mukinda
25 October 2009
Nairobi — Private companies and individuals are gradually encroaching on the Nairobi National Park, threatening the only wildlife habitat close to the city. A section of the park's 11,700 hectares of land has already been surveyed and the process to issue a title deed to 60 plots has already started.
Investigations have revealed that the 60 acres (24.28 hectares) would be subdivided into plots and sold off to developers. A similar attempt several years back was blocked by the Lands ministry. In the latest scheme, a deed plan, the legal document prepared before the title deed is issued, has been approved through a signature by the Director of Survey.
The document seen by the Daily Nation shows Deed Plan 299429, for the parcel LR No 28197 was signed on July 24. The action aroused suspicion because initial legal steps that must be followed before the land ownership document is processed were overlooked.
Fast track the process
According to an allotment letter obtained, certified and duly signed by Lands ministry officials as a "true copy of the original," the park's land was allocated in 1999 in a lease agreement. But upon scrutiny, the letter was found to describe a plot in Kasarani area, while it purported to represent the park's land in Embakasi off Mombasa road.
This shows how the process was carried out in a clandestine manner to ensure those allocated the public land remain unknown. The Nation has also established that a city-based lawyer, specifically acting for the allottees, has been visiting the Lands ministry to have the title deed issuing process fast tracked.
Kenya Wildlife Service, the legal trustee for the park, holds the title deed of the vast land. KWS deputy director Tom Sipul said they would take all measures possible to protect the land from grabbers. The Nation saw the park's title deed, and its deed plan confirming that the part being excised is entirely within the park.
"It's unimaginable to come up with a deed plan on top of another. There's no way surveying on a piece of land should be allowed without the authority of the incumbent owners. KWS board of trustees didn't (give consent)," he said. "This is a fraudulent process. It's not being done according to procedure and we cannot allow anybody to take any part of the park. A national park can only be degazzetted by parliament," he added.
While the individuals have been struggling to "legalise" the deal through government offices, another group, claiming to represent squatters, has been fighting on the ground to take possession. It is not clear whether the two groups are linked, but it has been alleged that the "squatters" may be acting at the behest of the powerful and wealthy individuals, who will eventually get the title deeds.
The Nation spoke to two senior KWS officials who said they had received death threats from the alleged squatters, for opposing the park's allocation. KWS responded by deploying armed guards at the grounds and demolished an office that had been erected there. As a result, the "squatters" uprooted beacons that had been erected by the wildlife service around the piece of land.
But KWS is partly to blame for the mess. While a fence was erected in 1986 around the park, the 60-acre piece off Mombasa road was left out, making it an easy prey for land grabbers. The park's senior warden Michael Wanjau and KWS assistant director in-charge of parks and reserves Michael Kipkeu could not explain why a part of the park was left out while the rest was fenced.
But according to Mr Sipul, the wildlife service then did not have professional surveyors: "We can't blame those who did the fencing because they were not guided by surveyors." He further questioned the issuance of legal documents for the land without their knowledge. "A deed plan is an extraction of information from a survey plan. How the survey was approved is questionable," said Mr Sipul.
He further said that Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission officials had visited KWS and interviewed several senior officials. Kacc however decline to comment citing an "ongoing investigation."
Breaking the law
We also learnt that the probe had been extended to senior officers at the Lands ministry. Our attempts to talk Lands Permanent Secretary Dorothy Angote and Commissioner for Lands Zablon Mabeya were unsuccessful. The two were either said to be out of office or held up in meetings, with their secretaries taking our queries, and telephone numbers, with promises their bosses would call back.
Mr Wanjau, said he was not aware about a process to issue a title deed besides the skirmishes pitting warders and the alleged squatters. "Nobody has the authority. Unlike Forests, ministers have no power to degazette a national park and so it would be very difficult. That would be breaking the law," he added.
But the Nation also learnt that a senior manager at KWS has all along been privy to the allocation. He is said to have turned a blind eye to the illegal activity after being cajoled by powerful forces pushing for the excision of the park's land. The matter has come up at a time Lands minister James Orengo said the government lacked the mechanism to repossess land stolen from the government, especially if it had been developed.
In the event a title deed is issued, it complicates further the process, because the government would be required to go to court and file for asset recovery in which it would be required to prove ownership. The government would also be required to pay some amount before repossessing such land.
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