Ill fight cartels, Lands Nominee Farida Karoney tells MPs

Veteran journalist Farida Karoney on Thursday assured the National Assembly Appointments Committee that she has the grit to rid the Lands Ministry of cartels that have for years marred services at Ardhi House.

Appearing before the National Assembly Appointments Committee, Karoney said digitization and a well-laid out record keeping plan would help clean up the corruption laden Lands docket.

“…Yes cartels are there and we can’t give up because they exist. The reason cartels continue to walk the corridors of Ardhi House is because the systems are not digitized. Let us deal with digitization and secure records, that way the cartels will be eliminated,” said Karoney.

“Digitize the records, make them available in a secure platform and that way you eliminate third parties,” she added.

Karoney told the Justin Muturi-led committee that her vast experience in strategic management of finances, human resources and leadership will have a rich input in streamlining the day-to-day running of the Lands ministry.

“Only 18 out of 57 registries have been secured and even so, those records are still not easily available. We need a robust and secure system in the lands ministry,” observed Karoney.

Asked by House Majority Leader Assembly Aden Duale how she would sanitize Ardhi House considering her predecessors seemingly failed to achieve a turn-around at the Lands docket, she was upbeat: “Implementation is where the rubber meets the road. This calls for commitment, and I can assure that there is commitment at the highest level.”

On how she would resolve the conflict previously witnessed between the Lands Ministry and the National Lands Commission, Karoney said the key drivers to managing this feud is communication, further giving a proposal that will entail a clear tabulation of the contentious issues.

“Work on areas without conflict first then move to areas where there is conflict. Bring the issues on the table and lets discuss. Let’s not waste time fighting instead of serving Kenyans,” said the veteran broadcaster.

On the question of what her stellar career in the media spanning over 20 years will bring to the Lands Ministry, Karoney said: “It’s paramount that the government manages its relations with its stakeholders which in this case its the Kenyans. I promise to support the government to communicate better with its people.”

The CS nominee further promised to make land and housing more affordable by addressing existing financing issues.

“We should have a land value index to deal with the question of speculation and manageable especially on big government projects that end up being expensive because of compensation,” observed Karoney.

“46 % of Kenyans do not have a toilet. Lets do the basic things first, keep the vision but start small and scale up,” she said.

Until her nomination, Farida Karoney was the Chief Operating Officer at Royal Media Services.