Lapsset to pay Sh1.5m an acre

By GALGALO BOCHA
Mr Abdalla Fadhil, the former Lapsset steering committee chairman resigned last week and yesterday said he quit because of corruption in the project.
    “I resigned because I did not want to be part of the dirty grand corruption going on in the Lapsset project,” he told the Nation.
    Senior officials from the land commission, the Land ministry, the Lamu County Government and some wealthy people were involved in a scheme in which the list was expanded from 62 to 250 individuals, he claimed.

    Senior officials from the land commission, the Land ministry, the Lamu County Government and some wealthy people were involved in a scheme in which the list was expanded from 62 to 250 individuals, he claimed.


Farmers whose land will be acquired for the Lamu port project will get Sh1.5 million an acre, amid corruption allegations over the list of claimants.

The landowners had their way after the government abandoned a proposal to pay them Sh270,000 an acre, which they had vehemently opposed.

National Land Commission Chairman Muhammad Swazuri said: “We have agreed to compensate them at Sh1.5 million an acre. This will be done once we verify everything from the claimants,” Dr Swazuri told the Nation on Monday.

A government consultant had valued land near the port project at Sh1.5 million an acre.

GOVERNMENT SUGGESTION
However, two months ago, the government suggested Sh270,000 an acre.

This sparked a row between Lamu leaders and Lands Cabinet Secretary Charity Ngilu, whom they accused of breaching a pact with the farmers.

Each of the 249 farmers listed by land commission for compensation will get between Sh2 million and Sh30 million, depending on the size of one’s land.

The listed number of those to be paid has sparked controversy, with a former Lamu Port South Sudan Ethiopia Transport (Lapsset) official claiming it is inflated.

Mr Abdalla Fadhil, the former Lapsset steering committee chairman resigned last week and Tuesday said he quit because of corruption in the project.

Senior officials from the land commission, the Land ministry, the Lamu County Government and some wealthy people were involved in a scheme in which the list was expanded from 62 to 250 individuals, he claimed.

“I resigned because I did not want to be part of the dirty grand corruption going on in the Lapsset project,” he told the Nation.
Several acres that had not been claimed by anyone were included in the land to be acquired.

Compensation for the land, which would run into millions of shillings, would be shared among a small group of land officials, claimed Mr Fadhil.

A plan to sponsor 1,000 youth from Lamu for port-related courses was marred with irregularities as “children of influential people from outside Lamu” were among 200 sent abroad for the studies, he said.