• NLC CEO Kabale Tache directed Nairobi the government’s environment department to stop any dealings on the property, citing an ongoing probe by MPs.
• In a letter to environment executive Stephen Gathuita, Tache said the commission has withdrawn an initial letter it issued to the county, which would have affected allocations of the parcels of land occupied by KICC.
Image: FILE
The National Land Commission has stopped an initial plan by some of its members to alienate KICC land.
NLC CEO Kabale Tache directed Nairobi the government’s environment department to stop any dealings on the property, citing an ongoing probe by MPs.
In a letter to environment executive Stephen Gathuita, Tache said the commission has withdrawn an initial letter it issued to the county, which would have affected allocations of the parcels of land occupied by KICC.
The letter (signed by a Mrs PM Kariuki), obtained by the Star, had notified Nairobi county that the land, which KICC uses as a parking was available for subdivision.
The commission in a February 9, letter, said the open space between the Supreme Court and Parliament Road – commonly known as Comesa grounds, needs to be re-planned and re-surveyed.
“Once the land is re-planned and resurveyed, write a formal request to the NLC chairman for allocation or reservation of the resultant parcels to the entities,” the letter read.
But the commission has retracted the letter saying the “contents were communicated erroneously and prematurely.”
NLC CEO said the status of the land was yet to be formally presented, discussed, considered and adopted by NLC plenary.”
“Further, the subject matter is still under consideration by the National Assembly Parliamentary Committee arising from an audit query,” Tache said.
“Given the above, NLC formally withdraws the letter and regrets the inconveniences caused, if any,” the letter reads.
The letter was copied to National Assembly Clerk Samuel Njoroge, acting KICC CEO Patricia Ondeng’and Armstrong Kasuku - director of Garden Square.
The letter has come hot on the heels of an inquiry by the NationalAssembly Public Investments Committee on Commercial and Energy
Affairs on the land. The committee chaired by Pokot South MP David Pkosing recently sounded an alarm on an alleged plot by NLC chiefs to alienate the prime land.
“There is some suspicion that needs to be investigated. We see a game here. You cannot imagine that KICC has no title for its land,” Pkosing said.
MPs want NLC chiefs to shed light on the circumstances under which the Nairobi government was handed authority over the land yet KICC falls under the national government.
A court said in July 2022 that NLC allocates the land to the rightful owners, after which KICC applied for ownership of the land.
The main question by the lawmakers was how NLC concluded that the land was vested in the county government and not the national government.
Auditor General Nancy Gathungu said she could not confirm the value of land occupied by KICC, which the management put at Sh2.3 billion.
The auditor said the amount given during the review for the year to June 30, 2022, did not include the Comesa parking area and the courtyard, where Kenya’s first President Jomo Kenyatta’s monument stands.
“Further, the land on which Garden Square restaurant stands is under dispute between the corporation and Nairobi government,” she said.
A letter from the Head of Public Service to the Lands Cabinet Secretary clarified that the land in dispute has been gazetted as a national monument and a part of the corporation.