Ministry must release money to pay off land owners or risk stalling railway project

Why does almost every facet of the standard gauge railway (SGR) elicit controversy?

Last December, I wrote here about the messy and disorderly process of compensation for parcels of land taken over for the construction of SGR by the Kenya Railways Corporation (KRC) and National Land Commission (NLC).

Quoting a draft audit report by the NLC, I typified the compensation process as a catalogue of misuse, misallocation and downright abuse of public resources. Why?

The wrong people were compensated and others over-compensated, land was overvalued and same acreage was compensated differently or there was equivalent compensation for differing land pieces.

The trigger for that piece was a call by the Public Investments Committee for a fresh audit of the compensation because the parliamentary watchdog was persuaded public money and land had been lost in the exercise.

Now the trigger for today’s piece is the dispute over the non-compensation of people affected by the project (PAPs) in Mombasa.

On April 18, NLC’s Secretary-cum-Chief Executive Officer Chavangi Aziz Tom, wrote to Mr A.K. Maina, the KRC Managing Director, informing him that Mombasa PAPs on the stretch of railway between 0 to 15 kilometres were preparing to sue the government because they had not been compensated for their land and properties compulsorily taken over for SGR.

Said he: “If the owners of the properties effect their threat to sue the Commission, then the Government is bound to lose a colossal amount of money in the form of damages et al, leave alone the compensation fund. In addition, if the project is to be halted through a Court injunction, it will have a serious negative impact on the economy of this country.’’

IMPATIENCE OF PAPS

Mr Tom was concerned about the impatience of PAPs especially because their counterparts elsewhere whose properties were similarly acquired were long paid their compensation and were, therefore, reading ulterior motives on the part of government for their plight.

Secondly, he was rightly concerned about loss of public money in payment of damages were the courts to rule in favour of PAPs.

But even more important is his concern, which I share, about the effect a court injunction stopping the construction of SGR as the matter before it was heard and determined.

In other words, Mr Tom was saying that the onus of stopping loss of public money and ensuring the smooth construction of the railway lay squarely at KRC’s doorstep.

This was aptly summed up in the terse conclusion to his letter.

“The purpose of this letter is therefore to urge you to immediately release the funds to the land owners to avoid embarrassing situations to the Government of Kenya.’’

WHY ONLY MOMBASA?

The question which the letter did not address and which is the reason for the impatience of the PAPs is why only Mombasa?

Like PAPs, NLC would also appear to be losing its patience with KRC. On April 28, Dr Muhammad Swazuri, the NLC chairman, also wrote to Mr Maina.

It was a reminder of his March 29 letter to the KRC boss concerning “Remittance of the Standard Gauge Railway Compensation Money to the National Land Commission.’’

Dr Swazuri reminded Mr Maina that he had asked KRC to, among other things, “make arrangements to deposit all the pending compensation payments of the Standard Gauge Railway, from 0-15 km and 463-487km, into the National Land Commission’s account”.

But, Dr Swazuri will know that KRC expects money from the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure.

KRC will only pay because the ministry has paid and that, in turn, means the delay in paying PAPs of Mombasa, who are mainly landowners and fishermen, should be placed at the ministry’s desk. It is why PAPs are preparing legal action persuaded as they are that KRC and NLC mean well and want them paid expeditiously.

From where I sit, the ball is squarely in the court of the ministry.

It has to move to avoid the affected PAPs teaming up with the Mombasa County Government and politicians in the region to politicise failure to pay them as age-old marginalisation of the region and peoples.

Secondly, the ministry should move to forestall litigation that will delay completion of SGR and cost the taxpayer millions in damages.

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My politics remains, of course, left-of-centre. But this is what I wrote on August 2, 2015: “But I have never found much time for Republican primaries until now. Yes, that’s because of a guy called Donald Trump. I like him.”

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