Lamu leaders fault Charity Ngilu over Lapsset compensation

Lamu County leaders have accused Lands Secretary Charity Ngilu of interfering with the compensation of hundreds of farmers whose lands were alienated for construction of the new Lamu port.

Governor Issa Timamy, Lamu East MP Ali Athman Sharif and his Lamu West counterpart Julius Ndegwa said Mrs Ngilu had become the biggest obstacle to the compensation that was initially scheduled to be completed in November.

They accused her of causing the delay in the construction of the multi-trillion Lamu Port-Southern Sudan-Ethiopia Transport (Lapsset) Corridor project.

The project has been hampered by feuds between Mr Ngilu, the National Land Commission (NLC) and the local leadership over the authentic list of land owners to be compensated by government.

INTERFERANCE

“The Cabinet Secretary for Lands is grossly interfering with the compensation process by bringing her own list of beneficiaries. Who knows better who should be compensated than we the local leaders? How can she sleep in Nairobi only to fly to Lamu to announce a new list? Who is she?” posed Governor Timamy said on Saturday.

He said the process of compensation was supposed be over now but “the process is drugging on endlessly” because of the minister’s interference.

“Our list was the same as that of the National Land Commission, but Mrs Ngilu came up with her's we don’t know from where. It was completely different from ours,” said the Governor.

Mr Athman said leaders in the county are looking forward compensation of all genuine land owners.

CONFUSING OWNERS

“Ngilu should have consulted the area leaders before embarking on an exercise that ended up confusing the residents even more. We want the Lapsset officials to use the list of names which the leadership dully prepared and verified,” he said.

“What I am campaigning for is to see our people fully compensated. I don’t think it was necessary for Ngilu to cancel the list. The government should use the list of 146 names to compensate our people. They have waited for long,” said Mr Athman.

Mr Ndegwa expressed displeasure at the way the government is handling compensation of land owners.

“Let our people be compensated. We are not ready to wait any more,” he said, adding that the government had promised to pay Sh1.5 million per acre of land taken.

President Uhuru Kenyatta was scheduled to preside over ground-breaking ceremony by this month.