The Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA) does not have official ownership documents of Sh10.7 billion worth property, plant and equipment it claims to possess, raising concerns of potential land grab and property theft at the agency.

The Auditor-General says of the Sh18.2 billion worth of assets the authority reported at the end of June 2023, it can only provide valid ownership papers for 41 percent of them, valued at Sh7.5 billion, and is still struggling to regain ownership of the rest.

The assets unaccounted for include various parcels of land across the country, some of which had been irregularly transferred to private individuals and others registered in the names of third parties.

“Management explained that various measures are still being pursued through the National Land Commission, Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission, and the Courts of Law to ensure that the parcels of land in contention are reverted to the authority for their title deeds to be processed,” Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu said in the agency’s audit report.

In addition to the pieces of land illegally transferred to private individuals, the audit reveals that four parcels of land measuring over 50.8 acres belonging to the agency are also registered in names of third-parties, some of which are not affiliated to it.

Of these, 13 acres are registered to Mtito-Andei-Ngai Ndeithya Settlement Scheme, 0.8 acres to Central Stores in Nairobi, 37 acres to the East African School of Aviation, and land of unknown acreage is registered to Bamburi Staff Housing.

The National Assembly’s Public Investments Committee had last year advised the NLC to revoke the titles of the illegally transferred parcels and revert them back to the authority, but this is yet to happen.

As of the time of the audit, the authority had “made progress in recovering six out of 17 parcels of land” under contention, the Auditor-General revealed.