Owners of residential houses built on the JKIA flight path ignored repeated quit notices issued by the Kenya Airports Authority (KAA), public records now show.
Demolitions had taken place at the Kyang’ombe slums before finally moving to the middle-class Syokimau at the weekend.
The decision to disregard the notices may weaken the owners’ quest for compensation, but may result in legal action being taken against government officials who knowingly facilitated the transfer of land to private developers illegally.
Public notices in national newspapers indicate that KAA issued quit notices to owners of properties in Syokimau, Kyang’ombe Village at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) and Mitumba Village at the Wilson Airport, which is also set for demolition according to sources in the provincial administration.
The notices had required the home owners to halt any development on the land because it fell on the flight path.
“KAA issued initial notice and has continued to issue reminder notices,” said Dominic Ngigi, the head of Corporate Affairs at KAA.
Records indicate that on September 15, KAA issued a reminder though the Daily Nation. Another notice had been issued almost a year earlier but that did not mention Syokimau, only limiting itself to Kyang’ombe and Mitumba Village at Wilson Airport.
The most recent notice read in part: “Further to previous notices issued by Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) on the above matter in safeguarding aviation security and safety of the JKIA and Wilson Airport, notice is hereby issued to any persons who have: a. Entered, occupied, developed or initiated any human activity upon or in the vicinity of the area known as Kyang’ombe Village and Syokiamu at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport…
“KAA has previously issued notices to all such persons to vacate such portions; the affected persons have persistently ignored and/or refused to comply with the said notices as instructed despite adequate time allowed by KAA...“KAA further cautions that upon the lapse of this notice, any buildings, installations, or erections will be demolished and/or removed and any human activities within this area will be stopped without further reference to them and at their cost and risk as to any loss or damage incurred.”
However, the authority has denied that it was carrying the ongoing demolitions.
“The matter is being made to look like it is about the KAA verses the public. But it’s a Cabinet decision being enforced by the Provincial Administration and the Kenya Police,” said Mr Ngigi.
Kenya has also lobbied for several years now to have United States commercial and passenger airlines fly to Nairobi to open the country to American tourists and the US flower market to Kenyan exports.
The delay has been attributed to security concerns by the US government.
The focus for those affected may now shift to the ministries of Land and local authorities’ officials who facilitated the transfer of land to the unsuspecting buyers.
The permanent secretary in the Ministry of Lands, Dorothy Angote, could not comment as she was said to be in a meeting but the ministry’s head of public relations, Richard Abura, said the ministry was carrying out investigations on why development was allowed on the land in the first place.
“The ministry has been mentioned adversely but it is not the only player. We have initiated investigations with the Mavoko Municipal Council and the City Council of Nairobi as well as the Ministry for Transport before we advice those affected on the way forward,” he said.
Should the ministry or respective council officials be found to have compromised the process of land acquisition and if they advised the buyers wrongly, they could find themselves facing expensive legal consequences where owners of the properties will be seeking
compensation extending beyond the value of the land to the time spent investing on those properties.
“JKIA safety is not only an important Kenyan issue but is serious global concern.
The individual ministry of Lands officials who approved the suspect land transfers should take full personal responsibility for both the fraud and resultant demolition losses,” said Stephen Mutoro of the Consumer Federation of Kenya.
The demolitions are a classic case of illegal land deals that have been going in the fast-growing Movoko Municipal Council, the main beneficiary of the ongoing phase of Nairobi metropolitan expansion driven by growing personal incomes and demand for town homes.
Earlier media investigations indicated that land intended for public utilities such as hospitals, schools and police stations in the Movoko area had been sold as residential plots. The mayor and the town clerk of the municipality could not be reached for comment.
In August this year, the government stopped all land transactions in the wider Athi River, which falls under Mavoko Municipal Council to investigate fraudulent land deals.
Internal Security permanent secretary Francis Kimemia said the order would remain in place until the task-force examining land deals in the area completes its work. He directed the Lands Control Board to stop processing any further land transactions until the task force completes its report, which it is yet to do to date.
Nairobi Metropolitan Development Minister Njeru Githae said the fraudulent land deals have been feeding organised criminal gangs in the municipality who compete to grab public and private land and sell it to unsuspecting public.
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