NAIROBI, Kenya — Imagine spending Sh1.6 billion and ending up with… nothing. That’s essentially the damning verdict Auditor General Nancy Gathungu has handed down to the Land Settlement Fund, a government kitty meant to address Kenya’s persistent landlessness crisis.
Twelve years since its establishment in 2012, the fund has yet to settle even a single Kenyan on the parcels of land it bought — leaving thousands of displaced families in limbo, and taxpayers footing the bill with no return on investment.
In the latest audit covering the financial year ending June 30, 2024, Gathungu paints a picture of stunning inertia, financial mismanagement, and zero accountability.
Four prime properties, acquired at jaw-dropping costs, remain untouched. Among them is the Kisima Njoro property in Nakuru, a 1,112-acre farm bought in 2012 for Sh396.9 million to resettle victims of the 2007-08 post-election violence.
Fast forward to November 2024, and not a single acre has been surveyed, subdivided, or allocated. It’s a haunting metaphor for government paralysis — while IDPs continue to live in temporary shelters, land meant to end their suffering gathers dust.
And this isn’t an isolated case. In Kilifi County, the Sh377 million Mikanjuni Farm acquired in 2020 is still idle, despite the existence of a verified beneficiary list.
Just a short distance away, the larger Mazrui Farm — purchased two years later for Sh445.4 million — has only been partially distributed.
Over in Mombasa, the Kadza Ndani plot, bought for Sh378 million, remains empty, its promise of housing for informal settlers unfulfilled.
But it’s not just the land lying fallow — it’s the entire system. Gathungu’s audit reveals a fund in disrepair: no risk mitigation policies, no strategic guidelines, and no appetite for implementing previous audit recommendations.
Year after year, the same concerns resurface like clockwork, and management doesn’t even offer an excuse. Meanwhile, billions more are lost in bad loans — or rather, ghost loans. The fund is sitting on Sh6.6 billion in unrecovered loans, dating back to as early as 1962.
The interest alone has ballooned to Sh5 billion. Yet, no recovery system exists, no evaluation framework is in place, and no provisions have been made for bad debts. More on government audit red flags here.
It’s the kind of bureaucratic black hole that leaves families trapped in generational poverty while government officials dodge accountability with impunity.
And with Gathungu confirming that the fund’s leadership isn’t even trying to clean up its act, the big question isn’t just where the money went — but how long Kenya can afford to ignore it.
