KENYA UPDATE ON COMPUTER THEFT AT GOVERNMENT OFFICES allAfrica.com: Kenya: Policy Papers Lost to Thieves At Lands Office

April 11, 2006Posted to the web April 11, 2006
Fred Mukinda
Nairobi

The much-awaited land policy will be delayed after burglars made off with computer disks with critical information from Government offices.

The information was contained in two hard disks and a computer stolen from the Lands ministry Ardhi House headquarters in Nairobi on Saturday night.

Acting Lands minister Kivutha Kibwana yesterday said it had taken the land policy secretariat about two years to compile the information and that there was no back-up for most of the stolen data.

The secretariat is based on the second floor of Ardhi House in the city's Community area.

According to the minister, the information was on regional physical planning for Kwale, Meru and Kisumu and Nyando. Also lost was data from the United Nations Environment Programme (Unep) and the World Agro-forestry Centre (Icraf). However, a computer server said to contain the rest of the information was left intact.

Prof Kibwana said the land policy was due to be released soon but the launch would be postponed.

"We have to take more time before unveiling the national land policy," said the minister.

The value of the equipment stolen was estimated at Sh490,000.

It was unclear how the thieves got in and left unnoticed as government buildings are usually guarded.

The thieves cut down two steel grill doors and two wooden ones to get to the server room.

Metal bars suspected to have been used to break the doors were recovered at the office.

An information technology officer in-charge of the policy documents, Mr Bernard Ajwang', confirmed the server was intact.