City Hall on the spot over transfer of Sh1.2bn land

Nairobi County government is yet again on the spot over irregular transfer of Sh1.2 billion parcel of land to a private developer.

This emerged during a Nairobi County Assembly committee sitting where the defunct City Council of Nairobi is alleged to have irregularly transferred the piece of land to a local petroleum retailer.

The probe comes after the Auditor General’s 2017/2018 financial year report revealed that the county government could have lost Sh1.2 billion in the illegal land transfer and another Sh22 million in destroyed properties.

According to the report, the 3.03 hectares Nanyuki Roads Store and Depots land located in Industrial Area, was demarcated and 1.227 hectares hived off and allocated to M/S Hass Petroleum Limited despite the parcel having been reserved for storage of road maintenance materials.

The Auditor-General questioned the process of allocating the land to the private developer saying it was not possible to confirm if it was done transparently given that no records have been provided to confirm the process.

Appearing before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Wednesday, City Hall Director of Survey Geoffrey Cheruiyot said the land was hived off and leased to Hass for 50 years on February 3, 2010 after a council meeting on January 26 the same year, under unclear circumstances.

Interestingly, it emerged that the land was leased to the petroleum firm without any valuation being done with only ground rent valuation carried out to determine rate to be paid by the firm for occupying the land.