BY LORDRICK MAYABI
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| null     1/1 Land Minister James Orengo/File NAIROBI, Kenya, July 7 - Lands Minister James Orengo has challenged the Kenya Anti Corruption Commission director Dr PLO Lumumba to focus on his work instead of engaging in public theatrics. Mr Orengo was reacting to a demonstration held last week by the Law Society of Kenya together with the Kenya Anti Corruption Commission (KACC), in which they were protesting against corrupt officers at the Ministry of Lands. "I take exceptions to the Director of KACC who - forgetting about his mandate and instead of doing his job - he is out there demonstrating; the reports we give get nowhere. If he wants lessons in demonstrating I can organise counter demonstrations effectively," he said remembering his participation in the struggle for multiparty politics. He described the ministry as effective saying: "We have recovered public land all over the Republic, like the Kenyatta International Conference Centre, law courts (in Eldoret) land belonging to the Judiciary in Nairobi and Mombasa." Mr Orengo maintained that his ministry had made strides in recovering public land, while the Kenya Anti Corruption Commission had failed to get any court case ruled in its favour despite the commission having its staff attached to the Lands Ministry on fulltime basis. "Within the ministry we have got officials of KACC working full time, if they have any issue regarding corruption or malpractice they should prosecute," the minister said. Mr Orengo also challenged the KACC boss to indeed prove that he was committed to his work by investigating and instituting proceedings against officials of the Lands Ministry found culpable. "If he indeed has to prosecute I don't want him to prosecute a clerk, let him prosecute senior officials, they have no excuse lamenting out there when it is their mandate," he articulated referring to the failure by the KACC to prosecute senior government officials. Mr Orengo who spoke at his Ardhi House office when he received commissioners of the Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC), also reiterated that this ministry was ready to effect reform to curb corruption. "We have tried to ensure that we improve land administration and have collected Sh8.1billion in the last financial year. We think we will win the war against corruption, bad governance within the land sector," he added noting that the drafting of the Land Bill will soon be completed. The TJRC Commissioners met the minister to discuss the prevalence of land related violations in statements and memoranda the TJRC has received. Other issues discussed included; the upcoming thematic hearings on illegal and irregular allocation of land and the modalities of working between the truth seeking commission and the Ministry of Lands. Follow us on TWITTER@CapitalFM_Kenya and the author at https://twitter.com/rickymeez |
Read more: http://capitalfm.co.ke/news/Kenyanews/Orengo-tells-PLO-to-stop-theatrics-and-work-13495.html#ixzz1RPsWVzk1
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