Reclaim grabbed Kenya Railways land, Atwoli tells State

Trade union boss Francis Atwoli has condemned the previous management of the Kenya Railways Corporation over the allocation of more than 544 parcels of public land to individuals, saying it is unconstitutional, illegal and irregular.

Dr Atwoli, secretary-general of the Central Organization of Trade Unions, said in a statement that the allocation contravenes the Land Act and the Kenya Railways Corporation Act.

To address the matter and have such instances put to a stop, he wants the government to help the Kenya Railways management to reclaim its land.

“Cotu is concerned and strongly condemns the move by the management of the Kenya Railways Corporation to advance the historical injustice and even progress to process public land title deeds to private individuals. Cotu demands that anyone who bought the said land legally or illegally surrender it to the corporation,” he said.

Dr Atwoli noted that the future of Kenya’s economy is more important than “land grabbers.”

“We, therefore, would like to call upon the management of Kenya Railways and the government to act fast and reverse the title deeds, and find a sustainable solution on protection of public land in the corporation,” the Cotu boss said.

He further noted that Cotu believes in promoting sustainable and inclusive businesses while protecting public entities from corruption and embezzlement of funds by public officers.

The irregular allocation of Kenya Railways land has been captured in the report of the Auditor-General on the accounts of the state corporation for the 2018/19 financial year.

The audit, currently before Parliament, indicates that the land was mainly allocated to individuals, by the defunct Commissioner of Lands and defunct local authorities, without the consent of the corporation.

The Commissioner of Lands and the local authorities are titles that existed before the current constitution was promulgated on August 27, 2010.

“The government must consider that in future, Kenya is going to put up modern systems in place that will link Nairobi to other cities in the country, East Africa and beyond,” Dr Atwoli said.

“The corporation is therefore going to be a key component in development as it is in Europe and other developed economies of the world.”

Dr Atwoli’s concerns come as the government plans a Sh236 billion Nairobi City Railway Project, which requires adequate land and financing.

The project funded by the United Kingdom government will be implemented in two phases.

It involves construction of a tunnel that will link the Green Park stage at the city’s Uhuru Park with Haile Selassie Avenue, to address traffic congestion on the busy Uhuru Highway.

The proposed railway project will sit on 425 acres of land, located at the centre of Nairobi city and surrounded by the industrial area to the south, the city’s central business district (CBD) area to the north and residential houses on the eastern side.

Already, Kenya Railways Managing Director Philip Mainga wants Parliament to step in and help with the relocation of Matatus from the Railways bus station to the Green Park stage to fast-track implementation of the project.

Appearing before the Transport and Infrastructure Committee of the NationalAssembly, Mr Mainga said Kenya has already received Sh12 billion for phase one of the project, that seeks to regenerate the Nairobi Central Railway Station and its surroundings into a multi-billion shilling city project model, that is transit and urban development oriented.

The new city project will relieve the CBD of part of the load in hosting enterprises through setting up economic zones that will comprise hi-tech industries and SMEs in a development set to create over 200,000 new jobs.

Kenya last year struck a deal with the United Kingdom which in December committed £80 million - about Sh11.9 billion - to build a green city of office blocks, malls and a light industrial hub on Kenya Railways land, in fresh efforts to decongest the CBD and create jobs.

The National Treasury also approved the project’s concept note and allocated the corporation Sh1.35 billion for financing phase I A of the project.

This includes construction of a pedestrian footbridge, the Nairobi railway yard drainage and other early Nairobi Railway city works.

Kenya Railways has already procured a contractor to construct the covered pedestrian footbridge across the Nairobi Railway yard, the yard drainage and other phase 1A early works, which is under Nairobi Railway Station Multi-modal Transport Logistics and Commercial Hub.

Phase I of the project, that will run up to 2025, will involve construction of the New Nairobi Central Station, platforms and a station track realignment to handle 30,000 persons per hour.

Phase II will involve construction of 10,000 housing units within the 43 acres with ancillary services and greenery.

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