High-profile people frustrating ADC efforts to recover millions in land debts

The National Assembly’s Public Investments Committee on Social Services, Administration and Agriculture chaired by Navakholo MP Emmanuel Wangwe has been told the Agricultural Development Corporation (ADC) is unable to recover millions of shillings in land debts.

This revelation emerged during an audit review session of the financial records of Land Limited, a subsidiary of ADC.

ADC acting chief executive officer Mohammed Bulle, together with the Chairman of the Board of Directors, Abdullahi Alawi, recounted challenges faced in recouping outstanding balances. 

The balances, ADC management said, are owed by individuals who, for an extended period, deliberately neglected their land debts, even after receiving title deeds from ADC.

“The people settling on these parcels of land have titles. We took one of them to court, but we lost the case. The court questioned how this person got a title deed before clearing payments. 

“Some of these cases involve high-profiled people, and this has come with frustrations from the public offices we expected to get help,” said Bulle.

Bulle told the committee that ADC owns a 2,500-acre piece of land in Kimwani, Nandi county, where 1,500 acres were invaded.

Recovering this land has proven challenging due to community hostility. Additionally, he noted that 1,000 acres were given out in the 1990s at a minimal cost.

Further, he told the Committee that the renowned Galana Kulalu land, spanning 1.7 million acres, belongs to ADC. 

Out of this approximately 20,000 acres have been allocated to the National Irrigation Authority for farming activities.