Taj Mall title revoked to clear the way for Outer Ring Road works

Owners of the giant Taj Mall on Nairobi’s Outer Ring Road are set to lose part of their property following publication of a gazette notice carving out a section of the plot on which it stands.

The National Land Commission (NLC) says in the legal notice published last Friday that the excised land is for the on-going construction of Outer Ring Road which is being converted to a dual carriage-way with elevated sections.

Taj Mall sits on two amalgamated titles (of two and 1.7 acres), one of which the government says was illegally appropriated from a road reserve.

The NLC’s directive also affects three petrol stations and more than 70 other buildings in Fedha and Tassia estates whose owners have been asked to surrender the titles to facilitate a revision of their status.

“LR No. 7075/13/1 which was compulsorily acquired by the government in 1960 be excised from LR No209/13938. The title should be surrendered for regularisation of the said subdivision and excision,” NLC chief executive Tom Aziz says of the Taj Mall title, adding that the land will revert to the Nairobi county government for road expansion.

That effectively leaves Taj Mall owners with about half of the land on which the building sits and prepares the ground for the demolition of a large part of it.

Ramesh Gorasia, the businessman who owns the mall, yesterday said he was unaware of the order and accused the NLC of mischief.

Mr Gorasia said the Kenya Urban Roads Authority (Kura) had assured him of the building’s safety and that publication of any notice taking away part of his land would be in bad faith.

“We have a letter from Kenya Urban Roads Authority (Kura) saying that they don’t need the land,” he said.

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Cede land

Owners of plots fronting Outer Ring are also headed for difficult times as the notice requires them to cede at least seven metres of their land from the current limits of the road.

Up to 74 properties in Fedha and Tassia estates have been listed to give up the seven metres, according to the NLC notice, which promises to regularise the titles to reflect the diminished plot size.

Last year, the NLC told the property owners that ceding the seven metres would be unconditional, meaning that they would not be compensated.

The commission warned the land owners that anyone who refused to surrender land as proposed would have their access to the highway blocked.

NLC vice-chairperson Abigael Mbagaya told the land owners at a consultative forum that those who refused to surrender land would be blocked with construction of concrete walls.

The NLC says in the notice that its decision to revoke the titles followed reviews of land ownership documents in the area after it received complaints from the national government, the county government and the public.

A determination of the legality of titles was made after reviews in which the land owners were invited to make representations.

“The full determination is ready for collection from the Legal Directorate Registry from Monday (yesterday) to Friday (January 29, 2016) during official working hours,” Mr Aziz says.

Ceding of seven metres means that buildings that have been put up too close to the road will be partly demolished making construction of the road a painful blow to property owners.

The NLC notice also affects three petrol stations run by Oil Libya, Jogoo/ Outer Ring petrol station and Gulf Energy. Safeway Supermarket also faces a similar predicament.

Owners of the four properties are expected to cede their entire holdings to the Nairobi county government for expansion of the road.

The NLC last year informed owners of the plots on road reserves of the impending action but was yet to issue legal notices revoking the existing titles.

The revocation order now sets in motion the process of acquiring the land for the 13-kilometre road and clearing of any buildings in readiness for construction.

But the notice also risks triggering another round of confrontation between the government and Mr Gorasia over Taj Mall, which is valued at more than Sh5 billion.

The mall, which sits at the intersection of Outer Ring Road, North Airport Road and Airport South Road, has been the subject of controversy since 2012 when Kura said the building sits on public land.

The NLC, acting on a request by the State road agency, revoked Taj Mall’s title deed on September 30, 2015 and ordered that the land be compulsorily acquired.

NLC chairman Mohamed Swazuri ruled that the mall sits on a parcel of land acquired by the colonial government in 1960 for future expansion of Oute Ring Road.

But the Ministry of Lands, in a letter sent to the NLC, said the Land Registration Act did not allow the agency to revoke the title.

The ministry instead argued that the commission should recommend that the title of the amalgamated land be surrendered for “regularisation of the subdivision and excision” — a condition that the NLC has now fulfilled.

The threat of demolition has been a costly affair for Taj Mall owners who have lost some of their tenants, including supermarket chain Uchumi who are said to be looking for alternative locations.

Mr Gorasia has vowed to sue the government if the mall is brought down, insisting that he acquired 1.75 acres in 1991 and another two acres in 1995, both from Abuja Limited before the two parcels were amalgamated into one.

The Sh10 billion Outer Ring Road project involves construction of two lanes in each direction, service roads, 10 footbridges, non-motorised transport facilities and six interchanges.

The design also makes provision for a nine-metre raised central median that will be later developed into a bus rapid transit (BRT) corridor.

The project was commissioned in January 2015 by President Uhuru Kenyatta with a three-year construction period but has fallen behind schedule partly due to the land issues.