State spends Sh4.7 billion compensating land owners for bypass

By Kipchumba Some

Nairobi, Kenya:  The staggering cost of compensating landowners on the route of the 39kmEastern bypass could make it one of the most expensive urban road projects in Africa.

Already, the Government has paid some of the landowners around City Cabanas in Nairobi a total of Sh4.7 billion, an Engineer at the Ministry of Roads has revealed.

A kilometre of tarmac road costs between Sh50 million and Sh70 million to complete. The landowners who have so far been paid occupy just one kilometre of the total road distance and compensation could end up accounting for up to 30 per cent of the final cost of the project.

The bypass, which links Mombasa Road to Ruiru-Kiambu Road, part of the Northern Bypass, was initially projected to cost Sh4.2 billion in 2011.

The amount spent paying landowners around City Cabanas amounts to half the Sh8.5 billion originally budgeted for both the Eastern and Northern bypasses combined. The Eastern bypass crosses Kangundo road after Ruai past the Embakasi Garrison and North Airport Road.

The two together with the Southern bypass are part of Vision 2030 infrastructure projects. Their construction began in 2009 as part of projects to decongest city roads and China Road and Bridge was awarded the tender. The Eastern and Northern bypasses together were to cost the Government Sh8.5 billion to build.

According to the engineer who asked not to be named since he is not authorised to speak on behalf of the ministry, landowners demanded Sh150 to Sh200 million before surrendering their undeveloped parcels, more than triple the price of two years ago.

In some cases, the cost of acquiring land is almost the same as the cost of constructing the road itself.

An acre of undeveloped land in Upperhill, where a bypass is being constructed, costs between Sh300 million and Sh500 million.

“The prices are almost criminal, owners are charging with the sole aim of extorting the government. If the trend continues the prices will become too prohibitive for the government to undertake such projects in the future,” said the engineer.

Shortage of funds

The engineer told The Standard that initially, lack of enough money to compensate landowners had stalled the construction of the bypass at City Cabanas for nearly a year.

“Given that some of the landowners were influential people in the Government and business world, they often dictated the prices at which they would sell their parcels,” said the engineer.

This consequently pushed up the general prices of land in Nairobi, a trend that was quickly picked up in other major towns.

“Those with money bought land along proposed roads for speculative purposes and the net effect was inflation of land prices across the country,” he said.

He suggested that the National Land Commission come up with guidelines on how to compensate owners of land the Government intends to acquire for infrastructure development.

Roads Permanent Secretary Eng Michael Kamau yesterday expressed concern that skyrocketing land prices might hamper Government efforts to build much-needed roads in urban areas.

Eng Kamau said landowners in major towns, such as Nairobi are charging prohibitively exorbitant prices making it very difficult and tedious to acquire land for expansion of critical public infrastructure.

“Roads authorities are spending approximately 30 per cent of the project cost on compensating land owners who may be affected.  Where disputes arise as to the value of the land these can sometimes lead to delays in project completion with resultant costs overruns,” said the PS.

Mr Kamau said that completion of the road is set to commence soon after the remaining landowners are compensated.

Several buildings near the bypass have already been demolished to pave way for construction work to go on.

The law allows the Government to compulsorily acquire land for public projects. Normally the Government values the worth of the land it ought to acquire, but the new Constitution protects the right of the landowner to accept or reject the price quoted by the Government.

Mr Kamau said that delays have also been experienced where services such as power lines and sewers have to be relocated for construction works to proceed thus pushing up the cost of construction. “In the past the service providers would be paid to relocate their services but this has been changed by the new Roads Act.

 The act requires that the service providers relocate the services at their own cost,” he said.

 The country witnessed a massive expansion of infrastructure under retired President Kibaki’s 10-year rule. It was under his watch that the Thika Superhighway was built.

The project opened up Thika Road and instantly reduced traffic gridlocks that had become endemic in that part of the city.

 Highways were also constructed in various parts of the country, thus making transportation much easier and cheaper.

But as it is the norm in such cases, businessmen were also waiting to cash in on this unprecedented growth.