National Land Commission (NLC) chairman Muhammad Swazuri has reiterated that the Ruaraka land is private and that the Lands Commission acted within the law in the partial acquisition of the land. He faulted the media for spreading false information about the acquisition and facts surrounding the land. Addressing the press at NLC offices in Nairobi, Swazuri said the Commission was first seized of the matter in July 2015 and the complainant’s complaint was that property had been illegally occupied and he had looked for help for thirty years, “The complainant had been complaining for over thirty years, when the Commission came on board he thought it wise to complain to us. The constitution of Kenya has mandated the Commission to listen to complaints of Kenyans on matters of land,” he said.
Swazuri said NLC pursued the matter with the attendant institutions including the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Lands and Physical Planning and the Attorney General to confirm the claim and the status of the land in question, “When people say it was a hurried process, done the other day, it’s not true,” he said.
He further outlined that the then Education Cabinet Secretary wrote back and confirmed that there were public schools built on private land, “The Cabinet Secretary then formally requested NLC to guide it in the requisite formal process and secure public interest, by acquiring the land on which the school stands,” he said. The NLC boss said he won’t resign even as the Ruaraka land issue rumbles on, and that only cowards resign as a result of intimidation.