Abdullah Al Mahri

There was a simple transaction at the municipality related to the father’s endowment; may Allah have mercy on him; but the surprise was that the municipality’s employees obstructed this transaction even though they had previously approved it, and began repeating requests, which lasted for more than a year and a half. I do not want to list the details of the transaction, but the requests of the municipality employees are completely illogical, and in this way, they interfere with the competence of other government agencies, obstruct another government agency from performing its work, and deprive the beneficiaries of a charitable endowment!

It is clear and obvious either that they are not aware of their work or that what is happening is simply arbitrary. I thought about suing the municipality and forcing them to abide by the law and demand compensation, but one of my friends advised me to meet the new head of the municipal council, Abdullah Al-Mahri, in order to present the matter to him and see what he may do. I told him that I did not know him personally. He told me at the time: You will get to know him; he has an exceptional personality. Then we set an appointment and met him, which was done quickly and easily. Of course, he reviewed the memorandum and told me I should look into the matter, especially if the transaction is sound and does not violate the law, and of course, for me, this is what is required. If there is no legal or regulatory prohibition on issuing the certificate, why is it suspended?

Frankly, the new head of the municipal council is as young as my son Othman, but he is experienced with his morals, ambitions, and love for his country. I abandoned the transaction issue and told him everything I had been thinking about for many years, and what I used to write about in the newspaper, which is the construction law and the violation law of both private and investment housing, in addition to what Kuwait has reached of civilized distortion and traffic chaos, and it has become a city full of violations. Bouabdelaziz spoke at length about the subject, and I found in him that sincere desire to raise the level of the municipality's quality and mechanize all its transactions in a real way and not as it is now, so that the citizen can rest from the abuse and neglect of some employees and take their right by law and without favor or extortion from anyone.

I talked to him about an issue that I hope he will take into account, which is that the removal of violations according to the current law is not applicable, and the evidence for this is that three quarters of real estate in Kuwait is still violating, and those to whom the law is applied are not a lot. The dilemma with this law is that it is not connected to the rental law, so if a violation is imposed on the citizen and given a period of several weeks to remove it, he will not be able to do so because there is a tenant, and the rent law did not provide for eviction if the property is in violation. Accordingly, if we want to succeed in removing the violations, we must change the rent law as it is linked to the construction law by adding a clause "no consideration is given to any lease contract that is on a property that violates the construction law." Thus, the citizen can remove his violation within the warning period, since, according to the law, at the end of the warning period, the municipality must refer the citizen to the judiciary, and when that is done, there is no room for reconciliation. So, even if he removes his violation, the court will sentence him to a fine which may amount to more than the value of the building and land.

My meeting with Abuabdalaziz, and regardless of whether the father’s endowment treatment is done or was turned to the corridors of the courts, I came out happy that there are still many young people in this country who are interested and love this country, and that there is still a glimmer of hope in the possibility of reforming and raising the performance of the municipal department. Thank you very much, Bou Abdelaziz, for your warm welcome.

In the next article, we will talk about the draft amendment to the construction law prepared by the municipality, this project that I can call “the final nail in the coffin of the model housing.”

Stay Safe.