Mzee Tsuma Wa Chaka who was awaiting compensation for his land in Taru on December 7, 2014. PHOTO | LABAN WALLOGA |
NATION MEDIA GROUP
Some of the people recently compensated by the government to
vacate their land to pave way for the standard gauge railway project
have complained that valuation of their properties was skewed.
They
say some of those with bigger and more elegant buildings on similar
sizes of land in the same locality got less money than those with
smaller and rundown ones.
One such affected persons is
Serah Wanja Ng’ang’a who was compensated for several developments at
Manyani, in Taita Taveta county.
“We have been given
two weeks to demolish and move out but I am dissatisfied with the way
the valuation was done. I have four buildings but for one of my
buildings I was not compensated at all while the other one was only
partially compensated,” says Ms Ng’ang’a, whose buildings house bars,
lodges and restaurants along the busy Mombasa-Nairobi highway.
She
says her properties were valued in her absence and now wants the
exercise repeated before she is asked to demolish the buildings.
Ms Rose Njoki says in spite of her property being undervalued, she got Sh200,000 less than she had been awarded and signed for.
“Looking
at other structures on smaller pieces of land that got Sh5 million and I
was only given Sh3.3 million, I feel oppressed,” she says.
This
pair and others who have lodged complains say they read mischief on the
part of the valuers and awarders from the National Land Commission in
the disproportionate award and want the matter investigated.
HUMAN NATURE
But
a valuation officer from the National Land Commission, who preferred
anonymity because they are not authorised to talk to the press, says it
is human nature to feel disenchanted especially with matters to do with
money.
“They should not compare themselves to others
because they do not know what yardsticks we relied on to award what we
awarded,” the NLC official said.
“The Manyani people
should not even be complaining, they should be glad to have gotten what
they did because they were issued with temporary occupation licenses and
were never supposed to put up permanent structures on the land which
belongs to Kenya Railways,” said the officer who added that they had to
appeal to have the compensations authorised.
At least
Sh3 billion worth of compensation of private land owners which started
earlier in the month and was being done in batches from Mariakani to
Kiboko has already been disbursed.
Project manager of
the SGR, Eng Maxwell Mengich, said they have been inundated with issues
of identifying the real owners of some of the portions of the land, some
of which was claimed by imposters. Other portions of the land falling
along the railway were untitled, presenting further challenges.
At
the Voi Kenya Railways office, according to Kenya Railways Regional
co-ordinator (estate assistant of corporation) Charles Osuka, the number
of complaints keeps rising, even as the project implementer puts
pressure on the residents to move from the land for works to begin
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