By Kamau Njoroge
For years, public schools have been the major targets by unscrupulous land cartels who have already grabbed parcels belonging to the schools thereby causing congestion and depriving the institutions of spaces for expansion.
This is the reason why Ruiru MP Simon King’ara has sponsored a Bill in Parliament that is seeking to compel the government to issue all public institutions across the country with all requisite land ownership documents.
The Public Land Amendment Bill according to the MP who is serving his second term is structured to compel the state to kick out land grabbers out of public schools’ land by issuing the schools with title deeds.
King’ara, who spoke at Ruiru Primary school while inspecting the feeding programme for candidates organized by his Simon Ng’ang’a King’ara Foundation in partnership with Food for Education, said that the Bill is set to be tabled on the floor of the house any time as it has already been published.
The lawmaker said that institutions have already lodged numerous cases with the authorities and others are in serious court battles with individuals who have already grabbed their parcels.
“It has become clear that corrupt individuals have set their eyes on schools’ lands. We have so many cases where individuals have corruptly and unlawfully acquired land parcels belonging to public institutions. In order to save our institutions I have sponsored this Bill which will put the grabbers at bay by ensuring all schools get title deeds,” King’ara said.
King’ara noted that his Bill will also require the government to revoke all title deeds processed and produced for land parcels belonging to public institutions.
“My Bill will ensure that all title deeds processed for the public lands are revoked and the parcels given back to the institutions,” the MP said.
He also indicated that public schools are losing out on donor funding due to lack of title deeds saying that most donors who have expressed their willingness to facilitate projects within the schools have been turning the funds elsewhere upon finding out that there are no ownership documents.
He cited Ruiru Girls, which is struggling to become a girls’ boarding school that lost funding from the Government of Japan.
The Government of Japan wanted to fund development projects in the school which could have seen it elevated to a boarding school with state-of-art facilities but diverted their support to another institution when the school management failed to produce the school land’s title deed.
“This is how bad the situation is and must be addressed in urgency,” King’ara said.
The MP also noted that other public spaces including those earmarked for construction of social amenities like hospitals, social halls, police posts and markets in the constituency are prime targets of the unscrupulous grabbers.
He said that following the establishment of a Lands Registry in Ruiru, his office will coordinate with local administrators and residents to fast track production of title deeds for the public spaces.
The MP also said that once the Bill is passed, Education, Lands and Interior Ministries should work together and fast track issuance of title deeds to all gazetted public schools.
“The burden of acquiring the vital documents for the schools should not be left to head teachers alone because for instance they might have issues interpreting information as recorded in community land maps. Again most school heads can be transferred even before completing the process of acquiring the school land documents. The relevant ministries must chip in their assistance so that land grabbers can be put at bay,” he said.
King’ara said that he realized the struggle faced by the schools when together with the area NG-CDF officials went to source for land parcels where two new primary schools were constructed at Manguo and Mutuya areas in Kiuu and Mwihoko wards respectively.
