Anxiety as lands agency orders developers out of public estate
Anxiety has gripped private developers who got land at a public housing estate in Mombasa town after the National Land Commission (NLC) gave them three months to vacate the premises.
The 6.93-acre piece of land located in Makande estate was subject of a public inquiry called by NLC to gather information on how the property ended up in private hands.
Last Thursday, NLC vice-chairperson Abigael Mukolwe chaired the inquiry at the Kenya School of Government, where developers explained how they acquired portions estimated at millions of shillings at Jomo Kenyatta Housing Estate's Block 114 in Makande .
Ms Mukolwe, who toured the property together with her team, dismissed the developers as strangers as they have not been issued with valid title deeds.
The estate is owned by National Housing Corporation (NHC) which assumed ownership in a debt swap with the defunct Mombasa Municipal Council.
BLOCKED SEWER
Residents told the commission that the blocked sewer line was a health hazard to them and called for a speedy resolution of the matter, as lawyers representing the NHC, too, pleaded for speedy intervention in the dispute.
The inquiry was told that ownership documents indicate that the estate was transferred to the corporation in 2009 after the title deed was discharged from Kenya Commercial Bank following the debt swap.
NLC further heard that the estate had been developed by the NHC, which in turn handed it to Mombasa Municipal Council.
However, the municipal council was unable to service loans given by NHC, as a result of which ownership reverted back to NHC
During the years the estate was under the municipality, the commission was told, there was illegal allocation which led to grabbing of public utilities including sewer lines, parking spaces, playgrounds among others.
REPAIR ESTATE
When NHC tried to develop and repair the estate, those allotted plots by the municipal council moved to court for orders that stopped NHC from accessing the property.
NHC then moved to court and won the case but again its bid to access the property was thwarted, forcing it to petition NLC to conduct a public inquiry.
During the session, 18 individuals and companies presented purported letters of allotment from the council.
They claimed that the municipal council gave them the land but were at pains to explain how the council obtained powers to allocate land that did not belong to it.
NHC managing director Andrew Siasi, who was present at the inquiry, said the tenants at the estate had suffered for over 20 years after the corporation was blocked from upgrading amenities at the estate as the private developers persistently sought protection from the law courts.
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