Following the resolution of the court cases filed against the appointment of commissioners to the National Land Commission on the 12th of October 2012, it was expected, as elsewhere noted on this blog, that the commissioners would be gazetted soon after. We are now into November, about three weeks since, yet the formal appointment has not been done.

The National Land Commission Act provides that the President should appoint the commissioners within seven (7) days on receipt of the report from parliament. This report had been long forwarded. Clearly, there is therefore substantial breach of the legal timeline to this matter and there will be need for those charged with this duty to mind any further breach.

In the meantime, in the absence of any clear explanations for the delay, anxiety has been slowly growing in the sector. Questions continue to linger. Some are already beginning to speculate. This needs to be pre-empted.

It will be remembered that the Commission had been shot down during the parliamentary committee discussions in Naivasha. Could it be likely that such forces continue to exert subtle influence? It is also obvious that any delay favours those who push deals on public land within the Ministry of Lands. Could such actors, known to usually wield great influence locally, be behind the delay?

It should be remembered that the land commission is meant to work with CIC, the Cohesion Commission and Parliament to begin to resolve the issues of historical land injustices which have been known to provide an entry point for the incitement of some communities into violence prior to general elections. Given that we are getting closer to elections by the day, it would be prudent to ensure that the Land Commission is in office soonest.

Besides, as noted in an earlier post, the delay in naming a land commission has continued to undermine land transactions in the country, greatly hurting business. It is also now interfering with the revamp of our  road infrastructure where requests for the compulsory acquisition of properties on proposed road corridors cannot be done since there is a pending cabinet moratorium placed early this year. The moratorium will only be lifted after the land commission is in office.

There cannot be a stronger case for having this matter quickly dispensed with.