- First batch of project affected persons and entities are those claiming up to Sh10 million
- Line from Nairobi to Naivasha is about 120km to be constructed at a cost of Sh150 billion
Image: FILE
The National Land Commission has completed due diligence for 367 landowners affected by construction of the second phase of the SGR.
NLC acting CEO Kabale Tache said in a statement yesterday the 367 are out of the 462 landowners in Phase 2A.
The line from Nairobi to Naivasha is about 120km to be constructed at a cost of Sh150 billion.
"The payment process has started with the first category of project affected persons and entities who claim up to Sh10 million and form about 80 per cent," Tache said.
She said the total amount to be disbursed for 367 people is Sh 924 million.
"Second category comprising 92 project affected persons claiming over Sh10 million and form about 20 percent of project affected persons will commence there after," she said.
This comes as relieve to landowners who have been engaging authorities in unending blame game.
Some owners had complained that their property was undervalued.
Tache said the commission intends to complete the entire compensation exercise for Phase 2A by next month.
"The commission has to date compensated over 1,042 PAPs [project affected persosn] totaling to Sh12 billion under SGR Phase 2A project," she said.
She said delay in compensation was necessitated by the commission's desire to carry out due diligence in public interest.
"We reaffirm the commission's commitment to uphold integrity, exercise utmost due diligence to ensure taxpayers get value for money,"she said.
Early this year, DPP Noordin Haji stopped compensation for the second phase to pave way for investigations.
"SGR land compensation...I think we have agreed that we are going to start investigations immediately and we are writing to the various authorities to cease all payments until investigations are complete,"Haji said.
The DPP's move came as a shock to landowners who had been staging protests over failure to be compensated.
At some point, Kenya Railways accused NLC of withholding Sh17 billion payout for those affected by the construction of Nairobi-Naivasha SGR.
Kenya Railways indicated that NLC received Sh17.7 billion between October last year and now to pay 1,090 landowners whose parcels were acquired compulsorily.
“The commission has however refused, neglected or failed to compensate the project-affected persons (PAPs) of the Nairobi-Naivasha SGR Phase 2(A) despite receipt of funds from them and repeated demands,” the documents indicate.
However, NLC said Kenya's Railways accusation was in bad faith.
Phase 2A includes the construction of a 5.3km tunnel, supply and commissioning of 56 locomotives, supply and commissioning of 40 passenger coaches and the supply and commissioning of 1,620 freight wagons.