The National Lands Commission’s decision to reach an out of court settlement, or compensation deals, with people in disputes involving public land is opening a pandora box that will be very hard to control.
If one has interest in a property he/she will fraudulently acquire it, then lodge a claim with NLC and wait for them to weigh the cost of the land vis a vis the property established on it. That is tantamount to arm-twisting the owners to sell to you indirectly. I don’t think the amounts reached, like in the case of KCAA land hived off by Weston Hotel which was valued at Sh300 million, is the current market rate for a property of such magnitude in such an area.
If a property was meant for public use, then it is meant for the public and a public body holds it in trust on behalf of Kenyans. Relinquishing such property to a private owner does not make sense in any way. Both legally, and even if you look at it from a humanitarian ground. The property will serve the interest of an individual and not the public. This is not fair at all.
National Lands Commission has a duty, they can at times turn themselves into a quasi-court then listen to disputes touching on public land. Their mandate goes to the extent of determining who the real owner of a piece of land is. But I don’t think their mandate surpasses that. To convert themselves to a court of law and make such drastic directions and weighty decision, depending on the circumstances surrounding the said land, is a big mistake.
Public interest outweighs an individual interest, no matter how powerful or well-connected the individual is. Justice must be seen to be done. Is there justice for Kenyans in abrogating, and now taking a position that the person who has invested or illegally erected a property in public land can pay any amount of money purported to be equivalent to the current market price of the said parcel? Who did the valuation and gave the NLC the figure? Was the valuation professionally/independently done?
We are creating gaps in the law that will be used in the future by other people. In law we rely on precedence, so if a wrong precedent is created, we will most certainly rely on it.
There should be equal application of the law to each and every individual. When you demolish some properties on grounds they sit on public land but spare some or handle them with golden gloves, there is no fairness, uniformity, or equal application of the law.