Officers from the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) have been deployed at the Lands Ministry headquarters to spearhead the digitisation programme.
The officers, based on the 10th floor of the ministry’s Ardhi House headquarters have been seconded to the Lands department under an outfit dubbed the Joint National and Resource Management (JNAM) in what appears to be a growing trend of the government turning to the military to spearhead important state programmes.
A source who cannot be named because he is not authorised to talk to the media over the ministry’s activities said between five to 10 officers have been undertaking tasks at Ardhi House, mostly scanning documents.
“The military officers have been here for a while now, we understand that they are working very closely with the National Intelligence Service (NIS).
The idea, we understand, is to inject into the department some fresh hands and eliminate deeply entrenched cartels at the ministry,” the source said.
Yesterday, Lands CS Faridah Karoney said the government had taken a multi-agency approach in implementing the digitisation programme aimed at easing the property registration process.
She however denied that military officers are part of the team.
“The ministry of lands is digitising records and we have formed a joint team with other government agencies.
That is what is happening. We are digitizing our records,” Karoney said.
But our source at the ministry insisted that the military officers, who have been credited with turning around government projects are involved in the digitisation programme meant to tame the increasing cases of fraud and forgery of documents in the lands sector.
President Uhuru has in the recent past deployed military officers to spearhead government projects including the transfer of Kenya Meat Commission (KMC) from the ministry of livestock to the Ministry of Defence and the handing over of State-owned aircraft to the Kenya Air Force.
In September, through Agriculture CS Peter Munya directed the handover of the cash strapped KMC to the military in a move aimed at boosting its operations and survival.
Two months down the line, the government-owned meat processor has managed to clear Sh250 million debt owed to livestock farmers and a further Sh150 million set aside to clear debts to other general suppliers during this financial year.
Spearheading projects
The state owned aircraft which have been placed under the watch of the Kenya Air Force include those previously managed by the Kenya Police, Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), Kenya Forest Service (KFS), KenGen, Kenya Power, Ketraco and other state agencies.
Early this year, President Uhuru Kenyatta established the Nairobi Metropolitan Service (NMS) to take over most of the operations of the Nairobi county government following the court order barring embattled Nairobi governor Mike Sonko from stepping into office over corruption allegations.null
Among the functions run by the NMS, headed by another military officer, Maj-Gen Mohamed Badi include the health, transport, public works, utilities and ancillary services as well as planning and development departments.
“For two years the Nairobi regeneration committee battled with the issues that have been bedeviling the City.
Unfortunately, the creation of the regeneration program committee proved to be an inadequate measure.
It was incapable of effectively taking charge and making the charges needed to be implemented.
It’s that failure that led to further consultation resulting in the transfer of functions,” the President said while unveiling NMS.
“I have no such intention (militarising the nation). But it is only a fool who would not use those who can perform to help him achieve his intended goals,” Uhuru recently stated while responding to criticism that he was militarizing the country.
“I am not militarising anything. I am using reliable Kenyans to fulfill my agenda for this republic. And the KDF are part of us and are also part of our citizens,” the President said.
Other military and intelligence officers who have headed or are leading key government agencies include the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission chief executive Twalib Mbarak, National Transport and Safety Authority chairman Lt-Gen (Rtd) Jackson Waweru, Kenya Ports Authority chairman Gen (Rtd) Joseph Kibwana, the Director of Public Prosecutions Noordin Haji, Immigration Services director Alexander Muteshi, the Kenya Maritime Authority director general Maj (Rtd) George Nyamoko and the Financial Reporting Centre director general Saitoti Maika among others.
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