The head of the Catholic Church in Kenya John Cardinal Njue has called on the Government not to demolish the Langata estates allegedly siting on “forest land”.
Among the properties to be demolished are the St Mary’s Mission Hospital, Sun Valley, KMA Lang’ata estate, Lang’ata Place, Lang’ata View Apartments, Royal Park, Forest View, Shalom estate, and St Mary’s Apartments.
Njue told Hot News he does not understand why the Government wants to demolish the estates and the hospital, yet they were legally acquired.
“Well, it’s difficult to know exactly what is behind the move. The Hospital is not owned by an individual but belongs to the Church. We will try to persuade the relevant authorities to abandon the plans,” Njue said.
Last week, Former Embakasi East MP John Ogutu Omondi asked the government not to bring down the estates.
Omondi asked the Government to go after former Senior Government officials who are the most culpable.
“These people took loans, they sacrificed all they had to get a home. The same Government issued title deeds to them. It will be wrong to punish the innocent,” Omondi said.
He said most of the lawyers who dealt with the land are still there.
Omondi said they should be summoned by the Parliamentary Committee concerned and shed light on the issue because it was not fraudulent.
He said the estates have led to emergence of several schools including a support staff school for the Hospital.
The MP sympathized with residents of KMA estate whom he said most are doctors who need to be attending to Covid – 19 patients.
“KMA residents joined SACCOs and saved money. They bought the land genuinely, went to banks and got loans. How do you say that is illegal? Most are doctors and we should spare them so that they can help us during this pandemic,” he said.
He warned Tobiko’s actions may be declared illegal in future by another minister and that will be a dangerous precedent.
According to media reports, the process of excising part of the land where the Lang’ata residential estates stand began in 1997 when Environment and Natural Resources Minister Henry Kosgey published a notice to set aside 53.68ha (about 130 acres) on December 22.
The land was indicated as L.R. No. 23256.
On March 23, 1998, Kosgey’s successor Francis Lotodo de-gazetted the alteration of Ngong Forest land to give it legal status.
It is at this stage that several Saccos bought the land, subdivided it into residents and magnificent houses were put up.
The estates mostly comprise of retirement homes put up by senior civil servants.
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