The National Building Inspectorate on Friday last week announced plans to demolish illegal structures near Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, ahead of the maiden Kenya Airways direct flight to USA slated for Sunday.
Moses Nyakiongora, the chairman of the multi-sectoral committee on unsafe structures, said that a two-week demolition notice dated September 28 was intended to guarantee aviation safety without risking human lives on the ground.
The notice, which expired on Friday last week, was served on 500 properties, including those around JKIA, Wilson Airport and the Kenya Airports Authority staff quarters in Embakasi village.
“Upon expiry of this notice, the illegally developed buildings, installations or erections will be demolished or removed from the flight path/encroached land without further references to them at their owners’ cost and risk as to any loss or damage incurred,” the notice read.
A similar case occurred in 2011, when property worth millions of shillings was demolished in Syokimau for encroaching on airport land.
These demolitions perhaps point to the rot in managing of airports land in the country, denying local airports and airstrips enough space to conduct businesses.
In March, the Kenya Airports Authority management was at pains to explain why it could not produce five title deeds for land related to audit queries flagged by the auditor General during the financial year 2015-16.
KAA managing director Jonny Anderson told the Parliamentary Public Investments Committee that the title deeds were under the custody of lawyers, whose identities he failed to reveal.
“I do recognise that the authority has historically been poor on the documentation part. The authority is, however, taking the issue seriously, and under this management we are keen on rectifying mistakes of past regimes,” Anderson told the Abdullswamad Sharif Nassir-led committee.
TIP OF THE ICEBERG
His admission could, however, be just a tip of the iceberg of how airport land is mismanaged in the country.
The national survey of airport land of 1996/797 was the first to expose dark dealings at the Kenya Airports Authority.
A detailed report of four airports (Malindi, Eldoret, Kisumu and Ukunda) showed that a whopping 972.36 hectares of land previously handed over to KAA by the government at the Authority’s inception was subsequently carved out and allocated to individuals.
According to the survey, Malindi Airport, which was allocated 382ha, had carved out 281.40 ha, remaining with only 100.60ha. Eldoret on the other hand had dished out 388.70ha to individuals, out of 525.99 ha allocated by the state.
Kisumu and Ukunda, which were granted 500ha and 50ha respectively, had carved more than a half, remaining with 207.93ha and 20.19ha in that order.
That year, the Controller and Auditor General issued a qualified opinion the authority’s books, saying the authenticity of Sh5.3 billion as reflected on the agency’s balance sheet could not be ascertained in the absence of full explanation of where the missing land was.
Furthermore, the Auditor General's report on KAA dated June 2014 showed that the authority had lost part of its land at JKIA, Wilson, Malindi and Lokichogoio to faceless grabbers.
According to the report, although the land is categorised as part of the non-current assets of KAA, which as at June 30, 2014, stood at Sh36.4 billion, plots estimated at Sh5.7 billion lacked necessary documents.
In August, two sisters, Litha Katumbi and Amina Mbula, put to claim over 6,000 acres that JKIA currently sits on. KAA has since rejected the family’s claim to more than half of JKIA’s land, saying the government had compulsorily acquired the 27 parcels measuring 6,736.925 acres in 1968.
However, the claim is a serious reminder to the government to safeguard its airports land if it seeks to compete globally.