We’ll not leave, hotel tells roads authority

The owners of Tamarind Village said on Thursday they will not vacate their upmarket apartments and restaurant to pave the way for a second bridge linking the Mombasa Island to the North Coast.

They said in a statement that the land was legally acquired and accused the Ministry of Roads of mischief of claiming that the multi-million estate sits on a road reserve.

“The old floating bridge ceased to exist in 1980. Nyali Limited decided to sell off the assets — namely the bridge itself and the land on either side of the bridge. These properties were offered for sale and plots 4/6 and 755 were bought by Baric Ltd, a limited liability Kenyan company on May 5, 1986,” they said.

The statement added that the land was procedurally transferred to Tamarind after paying the requisite levies.

“Registration, stamp duty and approval to build Tamarind Village were duly complied with and ownership of the above properties was transferred to Tamarind Village Ltd.”

Last week, the Kenya Urban Roads Authority (Kura) claimed that private developers had grabbed a road reserve at English Point in Mkomani area, with the Tamarind Village among the premises marked for demolition.

Kura spokesman John Chebii said on Monday the new bridge would help ease congestion and traffic flow in the town.

The island and the mainland are connected by the Nyali Bridge, but rising human and vehicular traffic have seen the road choke at rush hour.

The Nyali Bridge opens into Malindi Road that leads to Kilifi, Malindi and Lamu — popular tourist destinations.

The roads authority has already put on notice proprietors of the Tamarind Village. The main gate to the premises has been inscribed with a maroon “X”. However, the popular seafood restaurant, The Tamarind, adjacent to the village is not affected.

“We are just reclaiming our land. They (Tamarind) know where the bridge passed before they constructed the premises,” said Mr Cheboi.

But the businessmen dismissed the claims.

“Tamarind Village Ltd has 58 different shareholders and is a public company incorporated in Kenya and denies allegations that it illegally acquired the old Nyali bridge property or has encroached on public land and has documentary proof to that effect,” it said in a statement appearing elsewhere in this paper.

Last week, Kisauni MP Hassan Joho claimed in Parliament that the road reserve near the Old Nyali Bridge had been grabbed and sought to know what measures the government had taken to reclaim the land for public use. He wanted the Roads minister to confirm the ownership of the land and table relevant documents.

Roads Minister Franklin Bett said he was aware that the road reserve had been encroached on.

“My ministry has taken measures to reclaim the land for purposes of construction of a second crossing bridge, and through Kura, have identified the encroached land, and is now preparing to issue notices to the affected people to vacate in order to pave the way for the earmarked construction,” Mr Bett said.

He added that they had written to the Lands ministry to revoke titles for the plots. The minister said the land for the road reserve was set aside on January 31, 1931.

“Since then, it has been hived (off) to private individuals and structures built as per the survey plan of June 30th 1997, and that the corridor on Mombasa mainland exists indicating that Tamarind Hotel Village, has erected structures on the road corridor,” said Mr Bett.

He said the authority had already invited bids for designing the bridge that would connect Abdel Nasser Road on the island to Links Road in Nyali.

“In addition, Kura is studying the case with a view of notifying the Commissioner of Lands to revoke the leases to pave the way for the construction of the bridge,” he said.