Kenya Railways takes NLC to Court over SGR’s billions

Kenya Railways has moved to court seeking an order to force the National Land Commission (NLC) to release money meant for land owners in an embarrassing legal battle pitting two state agencies against each other.

Through, Muriu Mungai & Company advocates, the Railway corporation wants an intervention against the Mohamed Swazuri-led commission, accusing it of sitting on billions at the expense of the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) project.

If the legal battle runs its course, it will embarrass the government given that it will be one agency taking another government agency to court at the expense of taxpayer’s money.

According to the application papers filed on Friday, the corporation says it wants to be granted leave to apply for an Order of Mandamus against the NLC, to compensate the project affected persons Sh17.7 billion.

A mandamus is a command to a person to perform a public or statutory duty.The suit comes days after NLC released Sh4 billion, as part of compensation billions as land owners suffer in silence.

A number of land owners vacated their premises on a promise of compensation under the early entry programme. Some rented new premises after their houses were demolished to allow the contractor start work.

But they have been forced to endure a painful two year wait that first started with a promise of pay before going through two audits only for the NLC to continue their wait by sitting on their compensation billions.

NLC, which acknowledges receipt of Sh10.2 billion from Kenya Railways for landowners along the corridor from Rongai, Ngong to Mai Mahiu including the Suswa station, says the delays have been caused by lack of supporting documentation.

The commission says it has verified all supporting documents received relating to compensation claims for the project and had released payment of Sh4 billion.

“A special team has been formed to fast rack compensation for the affected persons in order to enable the contractor access the identified land and complete the project on time,” NLC said in a statement.

It however noted that in the absence of relevant documents, the commission is unable to process the remaining cases.

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