SGR land compensation nightmare

Transport Cabinet Secretary James Maharia complained that land compensation issues were inflating the cost of transport projects disproportionately.

This is said to be one of the issues that saw Uganda and Rwanda ‘pull out’ of the SGR link rail. CS Macharia said the Kangemi-Rironi section of Nairobi-Naivasha highway was also stalled by a Sh6 billion claim even when some structures were on road reserves.

“Some have put up structures on road reserves because they know the World Bank is very strict on its project and will not allow us to remove them,” he said.

The Athi River Machakos turnoff also has a Sh6 billion land claim while the Mombasa Island-Jomvu Mariakani road is facing a Sh10 billion compensation claim.

Housing Principal Secretary Charles Hinga said the Government is trying to establish a land value index to help standardise pricing so that it is not overvalued whenever the State wants to compulsorily acquire it, but the law is still stuck in the legislative process.

Besides land compensation claims, project delays are perhaps the ‘biggest tick sucking out life’ out of investor money even as idle contractors reap big from such delays.

An internal audit on the Kenya Electricity Transmission Company (Ketraco) flagged variations of contracts whose prices had been set beyond the 20 per cent variation limit stipulated by procurement law. One of the projects was varied by up to 86 per cent, resulting in additional charges of Sh430 million.

One of the contractors at Ketraco claimed to idling fees for 21 months for his workforce and equipment at a rate of Sh108 million per month for doing nothing.

Some expatriates were being paid Sh200,000 per day. These led to a Sh3.8 billion bill slapped on the taxpayer. The firm allowed a contractor to keep 100 per cent of its staff, even when the project had been stopped for 54 months after landowners blocked it.

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