Why Lapsset project could fail

The Lamu port project could stall due to lack of funds, the venture’s director general Sylvester Kasuku said on Thursday.

“The project is relying on the Sh3.785 billion provided by the Kenya Ports Authority because the government did not allocate it any money in the current financial year,” Mr Kasuku told the Transport, Public Works and Housing Committee.

“It is a sorry situation, that is why construction of the first three berths has taken long,” he said.

The committee summoned Mr Kasuku to explain why those whose land was taken by the government to pave the way for the Lamu Port-South Sudan-Ethiopia-Transport (Lapsset), had not been compensated.

Nominated MP Isaac Mwaura had questioned why the Lamu land owners were yet to be compensated. MPs are concerned that although the project had been launched and an office block put up, land owners have not been compensated.

Mr Kasuku said he had set aside Sh100 million to compensate land owners where the office block and the three docks are.
Some 150 people will be affected by the construction of the first three berths. They are owners of some 146 plots of which 91 have been verified by the National Land Commission and the lands Ministry chief valuer.

Kenya Ports Authority is asking the Treasury for permission to spend Sh1 billion on land compensation.

EXISTS ONLY ON PAPER

“From what we have heard, this project exists only on paper,” said Mr Mwaura. The MP also expressed concern over the hostile reception Lapsset chairman Francis Muthaura and other officials met when they visited Lamu last weekend.

The residents who were demonstrating vowed not to allow the project to take off until they are compensated for their land.

“You need to tell Kenyans whether this project is dead or alive,” said committee chairman Maina Kamanda.

Ibrahim Abass (Ijara, ODM), whose constituency is north of Lamu and whose sections are on the Lapsset corridor, said he had not witnessed any signs of progress.

But Mr Kasuku told Mr Abass the reason there appeared to be nothing happening is because most of the work being done at the moment is technical and do not have a lot of presence on the ground.

Despite slow growth of infrastructure projects in Kenya, Lapsset is developing faster, he noted.

The construction of the three berths would be accompanied by dredging of the channel. The private sector would then be invited to construct 29 more berths, said Mr Kasuku.

Preliminary studies established the 500-metre wide corridor from Lamu up to Isiolo, and then onwards to Lokichar towards South Sudan, Moyale and Ethiopia on which the road and a railway would be built.

RAILWAY, ROAD, PIPELINE

Mr Kasuku said the railway, road and pipeline would be designed at the next stage when the people whose land would be taken up by the project will be identified.

“We beg for your patience as we handle the mandatory technical aspects of the project,” he said. 

Lamu corridor is a transport and infrastructure project in Kenya that, when complete, will be the country’s second transport corridor.

The other transport corridor is the Mombasa port and Mombasa–Uganda transport corridor that passes through Nairobi and much of the North Rift.