By JERRY OTIENO
 |
| CJ Mutunga |
Looters of public land and other assets in Kenya have been given days
to return back the looted wealth, Chief Justice Willy Mutunga has said.
Mutunga said that those who stole public land should make
haste and return back what they stole or irregularly acquired before they are
caught, warning that the consequences will be severe.
“There is a general misconception of public property as
idle, free-for-all loot to be plundered at will. Public property is the
people’s property. It cannot be trifled with, stolen, gifted or otherwise
appropriated for personal enrichment. Those who wish to test the judiciary’s
commitment to protect public property need to have a fresh look at the
Constitution,” said Mutunga.
The CJ made the remarks during the handover of a Title Deed
to the Judiciary by Lands Minister James Orengo at the Supreme Court in Nairobi
yesterday.
He appealed to
all those who are holding judiciary and public property, to hand it in so that
it can be deployed to the use for which it was intended.
The CJ said
that Judiciary had not just lost courthouses, residences for judges and
magistrates, but also parcels of land upon which it was meant to base its
expansion.
“Impunity has
no clearer manifestation than this: that an individual or a group of individuals
would appropriate that which belongs to the common good for their private
benefit, without expecting any consequences,” he warned.
Flanked by High
Court Registrar Gladys Shollei, Mutunga said that the establishment of a
specialised Environment and Land Court, will shine a light on many dark corners
in the land sector, streamline the adjudication of cases and reduce waiting
periods for so long exploited to unfair advantage.
On his part,
Lands Minister James Orengo said that recovery of public land required bold but
legal intervention.
He said that
over the year’s public land had been illegally or irregularly allocated and
acquired and assured that the National Land Commission (NLC) will effectively
deal with the land problems which were extensively examined by the commission
of Inquiry into the illegal and irregular allocation of public land.
“The National
Land Commission is now empowered expressly by the law to deal with both
illegally and irregularly acquired public land. The commission has also the
power of review of all grants and dispositions of public land to establish
their property or legality,” said the Minister.
Orengo said
that the Ministry of Lands had made tremendous efforts and repossessed about
1000 parcels of land for the last three years.
On the
violation of Court orders, the two officials said that the new constitutional
dispensation will deal with them at a particular time and warned that the
blatant violation of the orders was a violation of the constitution.
“Anyone who
violates a court order is violating the constitution. We must desist from this
habit and uphold the rule of law,” said Mutunga.
More than 1.47
hectares (Four acres) initially grabbed by private individuals belonging to the
Mombasa law courts was handed over to the CJ.
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