Ruto: Dongo Kundu land compensation should be audited

President William Ruto has called for a comprehensive audit of beneficiaries of Dongo Kundu's land compensation.

The Head of State issued a directive to the National Land Commission (NLC) and Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) to immediately deal with and finalize the compensation of Mombasa Special Economic Zone -Dongo Kundu and ensure the rightfully affected persons have received their payments.

Stalled the project

“We have been talking about Dongo Kundu for about 20 years,  the compensation issue has stalled the project for a while. The list that was drafted as project-affected persons had a lot of discrepancies where the majority stated were non-locals, this is why I have directed that that list be withdrawn and a new draft to ensure all the affected people receive their payment.

An inquiry report by the Departmental of Lands chaired by Joash Nyamoko found out that in 2020, NLC documented a total of 1,759 beneficiaries as project-affected persons.

The committee noted that KPA and NLC jointly verified the list of beneficiaries and 1356 were listed as beneficiaries for compensation while 403 were yet to be verified.

“The NLC was ready to disburse the payment for 1365 project affected persons from the compensation fee of Sh1.4 billion,” the report stated.

Six villages 

The project-affected persons were to be settled in six villages, namely Dongo Kundu (394), Mwangala (374), Mrongondoni (205), Kaya Mtongwe (253), Siji (83), and Mbuta (450).

“The beneficiaries were categorized into two, the project-affected persons who comprised a total of 1756 beneficiaries, and public utilities with a total compensation of Sh1.4 billion. The KPA and NLC would not compensate public utilities for improvements on the land,” the report further stated.

It was then decided that KPA and NLC should resolve the discrepancies appearing in the list and submit another one for the disbursement of the Sh1.4 billion to a total number of beneficiaries of 1759 project-affected persons.

The committee noted a category of persons who were not in physical occupation of land, had not only made developments on the land either by farming or constructing a house, and who made claims to tracts of the said land and therefore were classified as squatters for purposes of compensation.

The committee found the payment of the categorized people was not a lawful and effective way of utilizing public money.

Monkey business 

President Ruto warned that those looking to conduct ‘monkey businesses’ on issues of Dongo Kundu compensation will also be dealt with.