• Residents have been given up to Tuesday to exhume their dead loved ones and place them elsewhere before construction work starts.
• Those claiming more than Sh10 million were promised to be paid from Tuesday next week.
Residents of Nkorroi in Kajiado have been asked to exhume bodies of their loved ones before construction work starts on the new standard gauge railway in the area.
The same message was delivered to residents of Olooltepes on Friday as the first batch of land compensation was paid out to claimants.
Kajiado North MP Joseph Manje on Sunday thanked Kenya Railways for being considerate to landowners in the two areas.
“At least they were courteous this time round to give our people ample time to move away graves of their loved ones before work started,” Manje told the Star on phone.
On Thursday last week, Governor Joseph Lenku had raised a complaint against the Kenya Railways for forcefully demolishing houses on the proposed SGR line without giving notice to the owners.
Lenku wondered why the Kenya Railways was in a hurry to evict people before paying their dues.
The government moved to Nkorroi and Olooltepes mid last week with earth movers and descended on palatial homes along the proposed railway line and demolished them.
Other areas affected included the residential neighbourhood of Langau that now looks like a ghost town after multimillion shilling houses were brought down.
Manje said the National Lands Commission had on Friday started compensating landowners who are owed less than Sh10 million.
“I am happy my people started receiving their dues. Those others expecting more than Sh10 million have been promised their pay from Tuesday,” Manje said.
The MP said others with disputes will have to wait until their cases have been dealt with.
NLC had on Monday last week claimed that compensation people whose houses were demolished would begin on Tuesday, June 18.
The promise was made after the residents accompanied by MP Manje met officials of the commission amid claims that they were never given any notices to move out of their homes.
At the meeting with NLC officials, residents who watched in disbelief as their investments were crushed to rubble, complained of what they said were inhumane evictions.
“The people who have figures less than Sh10 million and have no issues will have their money disbursed to them this and the coming week,” Fidelis Mburu, Director Valuations at NLC said last week.
(Edited by O. Owino)