Inside NLC's race to approve billions in questionable land claims

Parliament begins vetting a new cohort of commissioners for the National Land Commission (NLC) on Monday amid swirling questions about their suitability raised by various stakeholders.
 
Some professional groups, including the Institution of Surveyors of Kenya (ISK), have strongly opposed the shortlisted candidates, citing what they describe as a glaring exclusion of key land professionals such as surveyors, valuers and physical planners: fields explicitly recognized under Section 8 of the NLC Act as core qualifications for commissioners.
 
In Kenya, as has now become tradition with such constitutional bodies, commissions have increasingly become the perfect retirement plans for political rejects and those aligned with the government of the day.

 
A section of the Borana, Maasai and Kony communities have expressed their anger and submitted petitions to the National Assembly challenging the suitability of Abdillahi Saggaf Alawy, the proposed chairperson, whom they accuse of partisanship.
 
Dr Alawy's tenure as chairman of the board of directors of the Agricultural Development Corporation (ADC), the communities argue, was marked with irregularities, including claims of hiving off huge tracts of public land to the State body, something they want duly probed and audited by the vetting team.
 
The Alawy family is itself accused of securing a freehold title for approximately 309 hectares of land on Wasini Island at the Coast of Kenya after a roughly 50-year legal battle, a decision facilitated by the NLC. Local residents and leaders are challenging his nomination, arguing that the land in question is ancestral land and that the NLC's decision to grant the title to his family is unjust.
 
President William Ruto proposed Alawy as chairperson, alongside commissioners Susan Khakasa Oyatsi, Daniel Murithi Muriungi, Vincent Kigen Cheruiyot, Julie Ouma Oseko, Mohamed Abdi Haji Mohamed, and Mary Yiane Seneta.
 
The Court of Appeal cleared their recruitment and nomination and affirmed the tenure of the only two serving commissioners, Esther Murugi Mathenge and Tiyah Galgalo Ali, whose term remains intact and is set to expire on December 20, 2026.
 
But even as the spotlight shifts to the incoming team, serious questions linger over the conduct of the outgoing commission.
 
The Standard can now reveal how the departing commissioners quietly committed the country to billions of shillings in controversial compensation payments linked to compulsory land acquisition disputes.

The pay-outs involve claims by private entities for parcels whose ownership history includes past designation for public use, as well as cases where land valuations were significantly revised during the acquisition process.
 
Some of the claims are also tied to contested ownership histories, dormant files that had remained unresolved for years, and compensation figures that had previously triggered internal queries within the commission.

Towards the dying moments of their six-year constitutional term in November last year, commissioners at the National Land Commission convened a series of late plenary meetings that would quietly unlock the questionable compensation claims.
 
Notably, part of the compensation resolutions in question were allegedly adopted on November 14, their final day in office, just a day after a farewell dinner at the Sarova Panafric Hotel, a sequence of events that now raises questions about the timing and urgency of the decisions.
 
One of the most glaring resolutions by the outgoing commission was reached on October 16 last year at the 180th commission meeting and has attracted significant controversy. It involves a property measuring slightly under three-quarters of an acre in the heart of Upper Hill, Nairobi.
 
The irregular, roughly triangular patch of land is located at the intersection of Ngong Road and Cathedral Road, directly opposite All Saints Cathedral Chapel near the Nairobi High Court building.
 
On May 7 last year, the National Land Commission received formal instructions from the Cabinet Secretary for Labour and Social Protection to undertake compulsory acquisition of the parcel titled Nairobi/Block 30/19 to build a parking area for public officers and visitors to NSSF.
 
Records at the Ministry of Lands show that the prime parcel had always been public until it ceased to be so.
 
In Kenya, the Land Act, 2012 expressly restricts compensation involving public land. Under Section 111(1D), compensation shall not be paid to a public body unless it demonstrates it lawfully purchased and developed the land.
 
Grassy Limited, a private entity registered as the current lessee, is set to pocket a whopping Sh731.6 million as compensation for the less-than-acre parcel of land.
 
This is despite the land being bereft of any structural developments, it is bare and vacant. A land inspection conducted on June 27 last year by the NLC showed that only some ground excavation had been carried out on the property.
 
But just who is Grassy Limited, and how did it end up sitting on land whose ownership history shows it had always been set aside for public use?
 
Historical data obtained by the NLC itself shows that Part Development Plan (PDP) No. 69 of November 1974 clearly indicated that the parcel of land was public land and therefore the property of the Government of Kenya.
 
PDP No. 226 of April 1987 indicated that the land was under the National Council for Population and Development under the Ministry of Home Affairs.
 
Former National Land Commission CEO Kabale Tache wrote to the Ministry of Lands over this stalemate on September 1, 2025 seeking answers.
 
Gordon Ochieng, Director of Land Administration, responded that in June 1998 the parcel of land was allocated to Quincy Stores Limited, a private firm, by the President of the Republic of Kenya, and a title was processed on July 24, 1998, in their favour by the Commissioner of Lands after the company paid Sh5.2 million for a 99-year lease.
 
Official records seen by The Standard show that Quincy Stores Limited transferred the land to Autosilo Queensway Limited on March 29, 2006 at a cost of Sh65 million. The next owner was Frontier Properties Limited, with a transfer registered on December 28, 2011, at a cost of Sh100 million.
 
On December 17, 2014, the firm of Wetangula, Adan, Makokha and Company Advocates facilitated the transfer to Grassy Limited for Sh500 million.
 
Ephantus Murage, the former Director of Surveys at the Ministry of Lands, explained that there was no anomaly in the titling process, saying PDPs or sketch plans signed by the President for direct allocation, the Commissioner of Lands, or a delegated lands officer were acted upon and forwarded to the Commissioner of Lands for title processing.
 
And it is not only the land that Grassy Limited wants compensated for. The company claims it had already invested money and wants all expenses repaid.
 
Grassy Limited claims to have incurred costs on approvals and building plans, construction permits, sewer rerouting, and excavation works, totalling Sh110.98 million.
 
An earlier valuation by the Ministry of Lands in 2024 had proposed compensation of Sh610 million.
 
The report by Gregory Masika, the Principal Valuer, and also signed by Herbert Were, Director of Land Valuation, noted that the property was undeveloped at the time of inspection, although it had been partly excavated.
 
Under Kenya’s Constitution and land laws, public land cannot be lawfully converted to private ownership without due legal process, including formal degazettement and reallocation procedures.
 
Whether such procedures were followed in this case remains unclear from the documentation reviewed.
 
Compulsory land acquisition is a legally sanctioned process intended to enable construction of public projects such as roads, ports and railways, with prompt and fair compensation to affected landowners. However, the documents obtained by The Standard raise questions about how certain claims progressed through the commission’s internal review processes, and why payments were approved despite earlier concerns flagged within technical and legal departments.
 
In the past, President Ruto has publicly argued that the Ministry of Lands, rather than the National Land Commission, should take over valuation responsibilities for compulsory land acquisition.

At the centre of the matter is land referenced as L.R No. MSA/MS/BLOCK I/107 and 108, where Alba Petroleum Limited had proposed constructing a petroleum and vegetable oil storage tank farm and bunkering facility.

Earlier, the Defence Ministry had claimed that the said parcels of land may have been allocated to the Royal Navy/Kenya Navy, but that was disregarded as compensation for Alba was processed even without any known official forensic audit.
 
Alba presented documents to suggest that substantial financial transactions were carried out in connection with the project over several years, including payments for engineering, consultancy, manufacturing preparation and material procurement, to justify payments that some NLC’s internal teams had flagged.

The Standard team contacted the parties mentioned in the story, including the NLC, for comment, but none had responded by the time of publication.