Two people have filed a petition at the High Court seeking to compel the Minister for Lands and Attorney General to gazette names of the National Land Commission team.

Amoni Thomas Amfry and Nagib Mohamed Shamsa are residents of Nairobi's Jamhuri and Buru Buru estates, but originally hailed from Turkana and Mombasa counties respectively.

The matter comes up for hearing tomorrow.

The petitioners say the delay and failure to gazette the appointments - even after legal disputes regarding the issue were disposed of by the High Court - is preventing the NLC from tackling urgent land reforms.

The NLC is also expected to formulate land policies as contemplated by the Constitution and implement newly enacted land laws; the Land Act 2012 and the Land Registration Act 2012.

"There is so far no reason at all that has been given for the failure or delay to gazetting the appointment... hence the urgent intervention by this Honourable Court is necessary," reads part of the petition signed by their advocate Mbugua Mureithi.

Dr Mohamed Swazuri was appointed chair of the NLC, whose members will be Dr Tomik Konyimbih, Dr Rose Musyoka, Dr Samuel Tororei, Silas Muriithi, Abigael Mbagaya, Muthoni Njogu, Clement Lenanchuru and Abdulkadir Khalif.

The team was constitutionally and legally appointed to the NLC but were barred from assuming office pending court cases challenging their appointment, but which were dismissed on October 12, 2012.

Lands minister James Orengo is however yet to gazette their names to enable them take office.

"There are stringent constitutional and statutory time limits for the formal appointment of the interested parties (NLC appointees) through a notice in the official gazette," the petition reads, adding that failure to effect this violates the constitution.

The names were supposed to be gazetted seven days after confirmation of appointment by Parliament on August 14, 2012.

"... this period has long elapsed," Amfry says in the petition, adding that this is causing public anxiety.

"No reason has been publicly advanced by His Excellency the President as to why the interested parties have not been formally appointed into the Commission through a notice," he adds.

The two now want the court to compel the Lands minister and the AG to publish the names in the Kenya Gazette to enable them assume office.

The petitioners cite "ongoing instability" in the Coast region as largely a result of unresolved land problems which the NLC is mandated to resolve.

They also say the discovery of oil and minerals across the country "will heighten the already existing problem of land".

The NLC is supposed to investigate present and historical land injustices, research on matters of land, assess land tax, provide oversight on land-use and planning, administer and manage land, among other functions.

The two are also wary that failure to gazette the names has paralysed land reforms necessary for national peace, cohesion and stability.