Evictees demand Ksh2.5B compensation from KAA or reclaim Malindi Airport land
Residents of the Kwa Chocha area in Malindi town affected by the airport expansion project want the Compulsory Land Acquisition Tribunal to order the Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) to compensate them Sh2.5 billion or else they will reclaim their land.
The 230 residents were compensated Ksh423 million for the structures by KAA and were to be paid another Ksh2.5 billion for the land acquisition after being evicted, but the process has reportedly been delayed for over 15 years.
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Currently, the residents say they are running out of patience as KAA’s continuous delay in compensating them shows a lack of commitment, which has affected their livelihoods. Some residents have died, while others have developed chronic ailments due to not receiving their dues.
Speaking after a virtual mention of their case before the Compulsory Land Acquisition Tribunal in Nairobi, led by Chairman Nabil Orina, their lawyer, Vincent Mogaka, said the Ksh2.5 billion was loose change for KAA, being the largest collector of foreign exchange in Kenya and East Africa. He added that with commitment, KAA could compensate its clients even within a week.
“My clients were identified by the National Land Commission way back in 2017. We, therefore, do not understand the hardship in identifying my clients once more because they actually received a total of Sh423 million towards the settlement of structures. So, there is nothing for free. If the Kenya Airports Authority wanted this land, they could have paid a long time ago,” he said.
He added that the tribunal had ordered the parties to file submissions and directed the matter to come up for mention on October 15 to pick a date for the ruling.
The application before the tribunal is dated August 19 and was filed by Mogaka on behalf of Pauline Kadzo and four others.
The respondents in the matter are the Kenya Airports Authority (first respondent) and the National Land Commission (second respondent).
In the application, the residents told the tribunal that their persistent demands for KAA to fast-track the process of compensating the over 300 tax-paying families evicted from the Malindi International Airport expansion had been fruitless.
“This is happening after you publicly submitted that the exercise could have taken approximately sixty days after the three-day public inquiry that was held in Malindi, which you attended,” said the application in part.
Among the prayers is for the court to issue a notice to show cause to the NLC as to why the applicants cannot be deemed “occupiers in good faith” as per Article 40(4) of the Constitution, which provides that “provisions may be made for compensation to be paid to occupants in good faith of land acquired under clause (3) who may not hold title to the land.”
The application also wants the court to determine at an inter-parties hearing whether the compulsory land acquisition in question meets the requisite provisions of the law, having been undertaken for 16 years without any explanation for the delays, or in the alternative, declare the compulsory land acquisition (Phase 1) irregular and void, having been undertaken perpetually and in a manner that violates property laws.
“That the Honourable Court do find that the respondents are perpetuating a conspiracy of silence in what may become Kenya’s biggest irregular compulsory land acquisition at the inter-parties hearing, and if it pleases the Honourable Court, direct the involvement of the Director of Criminal Investigations,” the application said in part.
The application termed the acquisition as one that had become a fraudulent scheme and a collusion of the elite, to the extent that the size of the land under acquisition is unknown, which is a clear violation of property rights and national values that demand good governance, transparency, and accountability.
“This acquisition has been marred with unexplained delays. It was revealed to the applicants by an anonymous officer that it is often easier for the commissioners to hold a meeting in Guangzhou, China, or in the Caribbean than at Upper Hill or Nairobi and in Kenya generally,” the application said in part.
Delays
Residents present during the hearing expressed their disappointment over the delays and asked the authorities to complete the compensation process as it had taken too long.
Charles Safari, Chairman of Malindi Airport Expansion Phase 1, said his members were losing patience and did not know what would happen next.
“I have been holding them back, telling them to wait for the judgment and for the compensation, but no, it’s like they are deciding we move to the airport, break that fence, and go back to our pieces of land. It’s really discouraging. This project has taken over 15 years,” he said.
Safari added that KAA was not cooperating to pay them and that some members were getting sick while others had died due to the delay.
Asma Mohamed, a resident, said they were evicted from their land, but compensation has taken over 15 years, leaving them to suffer.
She said the compensation they received was too little to enable them to buy land and build houses, forcing them to live in rented houses.
Patience Nyale, another resident, said they expected to be compensated so as to rebuild their lives afresh, but since they were evicted, life has become tough.
She said if the delays continue, they will be forced to go back to their land because there will be no other option.
“We have been patient for too long. Others are dying of high blood pressure. Others are now stranded because they do not know where to go and are unable to pay rent due to the economic challenges,” she said.
