The National Land Commission and Kenya National Highways Authority have until February 28 to release Sh694 million to compensate more than 400 landowners along the Kibwezi-Migwani road.
Senators ordered the immediate compensation as the locals whose parcels were hived off to construct the road are yet to be paid, four years after the project started.
“The committee recommends that KeNHA and the NLC forthwith compensate all the project-affected persons in full and both submit to the committee a status update on the compensation within three months,” a report by a Senate committee said.
Senate’s Lands, Environment and National Resources committee recommended prompt payment after investigation of complaints that the agencies had inordinately delayed to compensate landowners.
“The committee recommends that the NLC submits to the committee an updated list of all project-affected persons and the status of their compensation within two months of the tabling of this report,” the report reads in part.
It was tabled in the Senate a fortnight ago.
The worried landowners petitioned the Senate to intervene and they raised concerns that they have not received the cash yet the project is more than 50 per cent complete.
“The construction of the road is over 50 per cent complete and there are no signs that the landowners will be compensated as there are no funds set aside in the budget,” reads the petition presented to the Senate by petitioners John Masai and Daniel Mwanzia.
According to the report, KeNHA stated that although it had cleared 400 landowners for compensation, it was unable to make the payments because of budgetary constraints.
“The committee was informed that since the request for payment was made, the authority had recurring issues of insufficient budgetary allocation due to the ceiling by the national treasury,” the report reads in part.
In 2019-20, some Sh450 million was set aside in the budget for the project. The money was meant for the contractor, consultant, project affected persons as well as recurrent expenditures.