Land owners along rail route want fresh valuation

Mzee Tsuma Wa Chaka who was awaiting compensation for his land in Taru on December 7, 2014. PHOTO | LABAN WALLOGA |   NATION MEDIA GROUP

In Summary

• One such affected persons is Serah Wanja Ng’ang’a who was compensated for several developments at Manyani, in Taita Taveta county.  

By PAULINE KAIRU
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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