Swazuri Sues Ngilu Over Land Transaction Freeze

The commission moved to court seeking to have the orders issued for their closure declared unconstitutional.

This comes after Lands Cabinet Secretary Charity Ngilu announced a two-week freeze in land transactions.

The NLC moved to court even as Coast leaders rallied their support behind the commission

The MPs threw their support behind NLC whose chair is Dr Mohamed Swazuri

They accused the Cabinet Secretary of frustrating NLC

Lands Cabinet Secretary Charity Ngilu said her ministry has started auditing all lands registry accounts and members of the public will not have access to them for the period in question.

Ngilu added that the move would pave way for digitization of lands records for faster service delivery and help curb land fraud

She downplayed a power struggle with the National Lands Commission headed by Mohamed Swazuri.

Lands Cabinet Secretary Charity Ngilu also defended the heavy police presence since the closure saying that the officers were deployed to ensure no documents were lost.

She said the audit was aimed at restoring sanity at the ministry that has in the past been riddled with corruption.

Ngilu further announced that one million title deeds would be disbursed to Kenyans at the end of the year.

NLC had earlier on moved to the Supreme Court seeking an advisory opinion on their mandate.

They asked the court to address issues relating to land leases, renewals and management of private land in the country.

NLC are seeking clarity from the court in a bid to end the current confusion between the Ministry of Lands headed by Cabinet Secretary Charity Ngilu and the NLC led by Chairman Mohamed Swazuri.

NLC appeared before Justice David Majanja who ordered them to file and serve the respondents.

The case will be heard Friday.

By Wangui Ngechu