State may relocate, not pay landowners affected by projects

Transport PS Irungu Nyakera with China Road and Bridge Corporation chairman Wen Gang at the launch of a report on the new railway in Nairobi on March 24, 2016. PHOTO | EVANS HABIL 

By KIARIE NJOROGE, gkiarie@ke.nationmedia.com

The government is mulling offering alternative land to those whose property is being acquired compulsorily instead of cash compensation.

Transport PS Irungu Nyakera said Thursday that given the number of large public projects in the pipeline, the current model where land owners are compensated at market rates is unsustainable.

His sentiments come in the wake of revelations that the State will pay out Sh30 billion to land owners paving the way for the standard gauge railway (SGR).

“Government has a lot of land. If I take away your half acre, I should be able to give you another half-acre or an acre or two acres somewhere else,” said Mr Nyakera.

“You’ll find that a lot of people on these routes are not living there (on the land). That you have half an acre here does not mean that you cannot move it just a kilometre away. We should be able to give you land and not money.”

National Land Commission (NLC) chairman Muhammad Swazuri said they had paid out Sh12 billion to land owners along the 472km SGR corridor but expect to pay out another Sh18 billion by the project’s end next year.

READ: Land compensation for SGR crosses Sh30 billion

Land owners affected by the projects have demanded compensation at market rates, inflating the projects’ budgets.

The proposal by Mr Nyakera could be implemented in rural areas where the infrastructure projects pass through undeveloped land but might run into problems in the built up urban areas.

There are proposals to build roads, rail, oil pipelines, water pipelines, power lines, among other projects, all of which require land corridors.

Some of the major projects discussed include the 10,000km annuity roads, the extension of the SGR to Malaba and the Lamu Port-South Sudan-Ethiopia- Transport (Lapsset) project which has a corridor width of 500 metres.

“If we were to compensate for a 500-metre corridor on Lapsset for 900km, we are talking of billions of dollars. We do not have billions of dollars to pay for land.”

He said during the Monday talks with Uganda on crude oil pipeline, one of the issues raised was land acquisition.

Uganda reportedly pointed out that land acquisition in Kenya is difficult and expensive and questioned if Kenya could deliver the corridor for the pipeline in a short period.