National Assembly Lands Committee has summoned Kapseret MP Oscar Sudi to appear before it to shed light on allegations that he is involved in an alleged scheme to grab land meant to settle Ngeria squatters.
The squatters have petitioned the parliamentary committee on land accusing Moi University of conspiring with a local Member of Parliament to evict them from more than 1,500 acres of land they claim to have occupied for more than four decades.
During a committee seating at the Boma Inn hotel in Eldoret on Friday the committee interrogated Moi University Vice-Chancellor Professor Isaac Kosgey, local leaders and the squatters.
The committee chairperson North Mugirango MP Joash Nyamoko and his vice chair Naivasha MP Jayne Kihara unanimously agreed to summon Mr Sudi to appear before the committee in the next seven days.
Speaking after touring the vast land measuring 1,515 acres, Mr Nyamoko confirmed that the committee would soon summon Mr Sudi to appear before it to shed some light on the committee.
“We have information that some leaders from this area are involved in the ploughing of the Institution’s land, but we will be able to verify that. We have instructed our clerks to decide so that Oscar Sudi can appear before the committee as he was mentioned during our session,” said Mr Nyamoko.
The land in question is situated at the Moi University main campus in Kesses, Uasin Gishu County.
The committee further ordered that all farming activities in the disputed land be stopped immediately until the hearing of the petition before Parliament.
In the petition, the squatters claimed that there had been a plot to evict them from the land to pave the way for the university to sell it to a local politician through dubious means.
Following the complaints, the legislators are investigating the alleged eviction of the squatters from the land as well as allegations of grabbing.
The committee had put to task Moi University Vice Chancellor Prof Kosgey over alleged irregular leasing of half of the institution’s land to a private investor.
The same land that the university is accused of irregular leasing is the same claimed by Ngeria estate squatters who were reportedly evicted in the 1980s.
The committee was told that the land in question had been ploughed by the unnamed developer and leased out to a company named Cropsoko.
The squatters led by David Kemboi, James Chirchir and James Sitienei claim that the disputed land is their ancestral land and that they were left landless after the eviction. They petitioned the committee to help them recover the land.
The VC who appeared before the committee revealed that the university is yet to receive a shilling from the Cropsoko Company despite the five-year lease.
In the lease agreement, the university was to be paid Sh24 million annually and is expected to receive more than Sh120 million from the company for the lease period of about five years.
Professor Kosgey told the parliamentary committee that the squatters had no right to claim the land.
Professor Kosgey wondered where the squatters had been since the university was established 40 years ago.
“The University land was donated by the East Africa Tanning Extract Company (EATEC) with the assistance of former President Daniel Arap Moi. The entire land was curved from two parcels of land which were amalgamated to one. At the time of donation, there were no squatters and no one complained of trespass or land grabbing,” the VC told the committee.
The committee members however questioned if the university followed due process in acquiring the title deed to the land.
Kaloleni MP Paul Katana a member of the committee faulted the VC for failing to disclose the owners of the company behind the ploughing of the disputed land.
“We have engaged other stakeholders who have indicated that there are very senior government officials behind the tilling of the land and that you only advertised the lease as a public gimmick to hoodwink the public when someone was already in the land,” Katana told the VC.
However, Prof Kosgey claimed that the University followed due process and was only leasing out the land to raise revenue to aid the struggling institution facing huge debts.
He claimed that in leasing out the land, the university was following a directive from the office of the president through the head of public service Felix Koskei.
“As you are aware universities are in serious financial problems and one of our turnout strategies was to raise more revenue through this resource that has been lying idle for over 4o years. We decided to utilise the land for production,” said Prof Kosgey.
The VC has been directed to furnish the committee with all documentation surrounding the leasing and the names of the developer and the company owners.
Other members of the committee who were present included Joses Lelmengit, Rachael Nyamai, Mathias Robi, George Ndung'u, Thuddeus Nzambia, Joseph Gitari, Anthony Mupe and Gideon Ochanda.
