The National Police Service risks losing its police station lands across the country to grabbers due to the absence of ownership documents, Auditor General Nancy Gathungu has said.
Gathungu notes that 80 per cent of all parcels of land owned by the Kenya Police Service lack title deeds something that exposes it to encroachment.
In her report for Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) for the financial year 2021-22, the Auditor General states only 464 titles out of over 3,000 lands have the Deputy Inspector General.
“The title documents for other parcels of land were said to be in the custody of The National Treasury but their details were not provided for audit,” the report says.
There have been calls on the government from police chiefs and elected leaders to expedite the issuance of these vital documents to safeguard them from grabbers and end disputes with the communities.
Most of the incidents of encroachment have been reported on police lands given by the community for the development of police stations.
Some of the police stations that are in dispute with individuals and groups over ownership of their land in Kiambu County include the Gatundu North police station at Kamwangi town and the Makongeni police station in the Thika sub-county.
At the same time, Gathungu has disclosed that 49 gazetted police stations and nine Coast Guard field stations operated without funding Authority to Incur Expenditure (AIE) during the year under review.
The stations, she said, were meeting their recurrent expenditures through support from the mother stations.
“The lack of funding may affect the ability of the stations to adequately deliver services to the public,” she noted.
The report has further exposed how the Kenya Coast Guard Service (KCGS) has been operating, repairing and maintaining some 59 boats without proof of title ownership.
Some of these vessels, it states, had been transferred to KCGS from other government agencies without ownership documents or official transfer deed documentation.
“In the circumstances, effective control and use of the assets without ownership documents increases the risk of assets loss,” it adds.