A gazette notice signed by Interior Cabinet Secretary (CS) Kithure Kindiki privatising a section of a public land has caused an uproar.
Dated Friday, December 15, the notice indicated that part of the Dandora Waste Water Treatment Plant in Ruai protected under a gazette notice in 2020 was now private.
“Subdivisions of L.R. No. 12979 being L.R. 12979/3, measuring 404.58 hectares and L.R. No. 12979/4, measuring 650.02 hectares are excluded from the Dandora Waste Water Treatment Plant (Ruai), Protected Area Order, 2020.” said the notice.
Former President Uhuru Kenyatta had in 2020 reclaimed the said land illegally allocated to private developers.
The prime land on Kangundo Road in Nairobi, is one of two parcels that has been taken back by the State for the expansion of Nairobi’s main sewerage plant.
The government, through the Ministry of Interior, then released an order citing the parcel as a protected area.
The gazette notice dated May 28, 2020, directed that no person was allowed on the premises without permission from the then Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i or the Managing Director (MD) for the Dandora Waste Water Treatment Plant.
The Ministry of Water and Sanitation also promised at the time to recover parcels meant for sanitation facilities that developers had illegally obtained.
“It is recommended that all land that was set aside for development and expansion of sewerage system in Nairobi county but has been illegally acquired by third parties be recovered,” PS Joseph Irungu stated.
The PSs named the affected parcels as LR 28706, measuring 1,605 acres, which is owned by Renton Company Limited.
Renton company, which was registered in 1995, was allocated the land by William ole Ntimama, the then Local Government minister.
The second parcel LR 28707, measuring 999 acres is registered under Offshore Trading Company Limited, which is owned by former Lugari MP Cyrus Jirongo.
First commissioned in 1978, the Ruai sewerage plant, which sits on LR 12979/1/1, measuring approximately 1,637.31 acres, is in dire need of expansion.
However, over the years, some groups of people have continued to illegally encroach into the above land taking up most of the land that was meant for the expansion of the treatment works.
Renton Company does not exist at the registry of companies even though there are several variants of the name.
Court documents, in a petition filed in 2010 by Renton Company against Nairobi City Council and former senior officials Philip Kisia and Tom Odongo, indicate that the firm had sought to charge the property to KCB and had also sought to be connected to the electricity grid.
However, Mr Odongo – then the director of Land and Planning – cautioned KCB against extending the facility, saying the land was indeed public and intended for the expansion of the sewerage treatment plant.
Mr Kisia, who served as the town clerk for Nairobi City Council for three years until 2012 had questioned the legitimacy of the allocation.
“If there is anything to show that the allocation followed due process then the alleged owners should seek compensation,” he said.
Kisia added that the city council did not have the powers to allocate land meant for public use, in this case intended for the expansion of the sewerage treatment plant, to private entities.
NCC was formally granted the entire parcel of land registered as LR 12979/1 in 1996 where the sewerage works was already. It was part of LR 12979 which is 5,336.2 hectares (13,186 acres), according to the area survey maps.
Renton has always claimed to have paid Sh18.2 million to NCC, but the claim has never been backed up by any documents.
As for Jirongo, he was able to charge the property to Kenya Post Bank Credit, which has since collapsed, in 1994 for Sh1 billion, a fact confirmed yesterday by the Kenya Deposit Insurance Corporation.
