Over 200 parcels of airport land under the control of individuals

Aircraft parked with their wings overlapping each other at the Wilson Airport’s apron. ICAO parking regulations for a Code 2 airport like Wilson state that the minimum allowed distance between the wingtip of one parked aircraft to another is three metres. PHOTO | VINCENT ACHUKA |

What you need to know:

  • Cartels that took land illegally try to sell it back to the airport.
  • Airports authority asks National Land Commission to carry out search and help to make sure no one can sell or lease them out.

At least 200 parcels of land belonging to various airports in the country have been hived off and acquired by private individuals, the Sunday Nation can report.

In a letter to the National Land Commission (NLC), the Kenya Airports Authority highlights the disappearance of airport land.

The letter, signed by chief legal officer Victor Arika, says 207 parcels of land owned by the authority have been grabbed and urges the commission to stop further transactions on them.

“Schedules of land which have been allocated to third parties fall within various airport lands and we request you to facilitate an official search of the said parcels.

“We would also like to confirm if the authority can apply for a caveat on the said land so as to stop further transactions to safeguard the interests of the authority,” said Mr Arika.

Some of the hived off land includes sensitive sections of Jomo Kenyatta International Airport like the flight path.

A number of commercial developments already stand in the flight path including warehouses and a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) plant.

If an accident were to occur at the plant, the fireball and smoke would be so intense that no flights could land or take off for hours.

JKIA, Kenya’s largest airport that serves an average of 19,000 passengers daily, is the worst hit. More than half the total number of grabbed plots originally belonged to it.

According to documents in our possession, at least 138 parcels of land JKIA claims to own have been allocated to third parties and titles issued, including parts of  the land occupied by its cargo apron (LR NO 22405).

The apron is a section of the airport where planes are loaded and offloaded, and should the private owners who have titles move to claim it, operations at the ninth busiest airport in Africa in terms of passenger numbers would be greatly disrupted.

It is unclear how land in such a sensitive section of the airport changed hands, but a source at Kenya Airports Authority says most of the land was reallocated through underhand dealings between corrupt officials in the ministry of Land and land cartels with the backing of politicians.

ISSUED RECENTLY

“While it is true some of the land may have changed hands before 1996 when Kenya Airports Authority got titles for all the land it owns, some titles to private owners were issued as recently as 10 years ago,” said our source.

“You need to ask yourself how such land, which is classified as secure, can disappear, and no one is raising questions,” he said.

Attracted by the large tracts of empty land within airport perimeters, the voracious cartels illegally acquired land owned by seven airports, denying them space for crucial functions such as aircraft parking, expansion and runway extension.

At Wilson Airport, the apron is so overcrowded that aircraft are parked with their wings overlapping.

Others are parked so dangerously close to the main apron’s taxiway that taxiing aircraft sometimes deviate from the centre line — contrary to ICAO regulations — to avoid hitting parked aircraft.

Wilson Airport Manager Colonel (rtd) Richard Ngovi says the land grabbers even attempt to sell back grabbed land to the airports.

“Some of the grabbers know that the airport is in need of land, and they have been sending middlemen to sell us back some land near runway 07 for several millions but the land belongs to the airport,” he told the Sunday Nation.

In a letter dated September  2013, Kenya Airports Authority claimed that private developers had taken 138 parcels from JKIA, 21 (Wilson), 20 (Moi International Airport, Eldoret), 13 (Kisumu Airport), two (Kitale airstrip), 13 (Eldoret airstrip), 1 (Malindi Airport) and two (Embakasi Kenya Airports Authority Housing).

Investigation by the Sunday Nation reveals that a total of 13 plots owned by private individuals stand in JKIA’s main flight path. These are LR 25799/1-3, 23232, 24388-24395 and 24482.

Kenya Airports Authority has tried to recover LR 25799/1 but failed after the Environmental and Land Court in Nairobi ruled the piece of land was acquired lawfully by Push Enterprises Limited.

STILL UNCLEAR

In his ruling, Mr Justice P. Nyamweya said Kenya Airports Authority lost the case after a “perusal of the said title showed that it was surrendered to the government on November 7, 2003 in exchange of a new grant LR 90243”.

It is still unclear why LR 25799, which clearly stands in the flight path of an international airport, was hived off LR21919 (the airport’s mother title) in 2003 and sub-divided into three parcels of land LR 25799/1, 25799/2 and 25799/3 despite the safety concerns.

Also unclear is whether it was done with the knowledge of Kenya Airports Authority officials.

Further, an inquiry by the Sunday Nation of the ownership of the two adjoining pieces shows that in June 2009, Hunkdar Gas Limited approached the National Environment and Management Authority (Nema) seeking approval to construct an LPG gas plant on the plot, which was given.

Kenya Airports Authority did not respond to our questions on this matter despite repeated inquiries to its legal and communication officers.
NLC chair Mohammed Swazuri acknowledged receipt of the letter.

“I have just received the letter from KAA about their grabbed pieces of land, and I’m still trying to get to the bottom of the matter,” he said.

“It is true that airports have lost hundreds of acres of land, but some of the land may have been lost with the knowledge of previous or current airport officials; others date back to about 20 years ago so it’s a complex matter that will take time to resolve,” he said.

The government is in the process of upgrading JKIA to a Category One airport that is expected to handle long-awaited direct flights between Nairobi and the United States.

Some of the demands by the US Government include the separation of the arrival and departure units, clearance of the flight path, and fencing off the entire airport.