National Land Commission to disburse Sh50 million to Project-Affected Persons on Sagana-Kenol highway
Samuel Maina and Wangari Mwangi-KNA
The Government has approved the release of some Sh50 million as part of claim settlement for project affected persons (PAPs), whose land was hived off for the construction of the Sagana-Kenol dual carriageway.
The tranche forms part of millions of shillings of compensation money that has been paid out to families whose land was acquired for the dualling of the key highway.
The National Land Commission (NLC) commissioner Esther Murugi said the money is expected to be credited to the beneficiaries’ bank accounts by next week.
Murugi, who once served as Nyeri Town MP, attributed the slow pace of paying out compensation to numerous family disputes, which has at times forced the Commission to wait a bit longer before any claims can be paid out.
Murugi was speaking in Nyeri during the hearings of a two-day historical land injustices claims forum organized by the Commission.
“We know the projected affected persons are a bit unhappy, but we also understand the financial situation that the country is in, and it will be our wish that once a project is started the affected persons are paid affront. But we are doing whatever we can with the acquiring agent. We were able to approve Sh50 million which the affected persons will be able to get by next week. It will be a Christmas gift to them,” she told KNA on the sidelines of the forum.
A total of Sh4.8 billion had been set aside as compensation money for a total of 2,350 PAPs with 1,014 being residents of Kirinyaga County, while 1,350 were from Nyeri.
In September this year, a report by Kenya National Highway Authority (KeNHA) showed only 453 (34 per cent) of PAPs from Nyeri had received compensation leaving 897 pending claims.
Kirinyaga was in the lead with at least 92 per cent or 932 families having already received their claims.
“Delayed payment of money for acquisition of affected land and property on some sections of the road has resulted in contractors suspending works on this specific road.
"The unavailable section in total is 7.598 kilometer out of thirty-six kilometers,” read part of the report presented to the Nyeri County Implementation Coordination and Management Committee (NGD-CICMC) by Central Region KeNHA Deputy Engineer Javan Wandiema.
“The delay of payment of acquisition money for Marua interchange resulted in delayed start of the construction of the bridge at this specific location,” the report added.
Wandiema said the committee had escalated the delays in paying claimants to the National Treasury, but they were yet to receive a word on when money will be available to pay the remaining claimants.
Normally KeNHA, who in turn credits the funds to the National Land Commission (NLC) which is the paying agent, receives such monies.
Murugi also cited lack of binding mandate in implementing the commission’s recommendations as one of the challenges that has affected speedy delivery of justice to petitioners seeking redress in land petitions.
She said while the time usually recommended to settle a single historical land injustice is normally three years, this timeline is rarely attained since the burden of settling such claims lies squarely on the respondent who in most cases may log an appeal either through NLC or a court of law.
“One of the challenges we as a Commission have had is to determine what we are supposed to implement within a period of three years, but we do not have that mandate. Ours is to determine, recommend the various agencies and the people to implement are various such as the churches, Kenya Forest Service among others,” she stated.
Prof. James Tuitoek, who is the chair of the Taskforce said the commission is overseeing a total of 3,743 cases, historical land injustices across the country, which are currently at various stages of hearing.
He said many cases are quite complex due to their time span with some dating back to the colonial days.