The Government is in order to set aside more land for the Lamu Port, South Sudan and Ethiopia Transport Corridor Project (Lapsset), the National Lands Commission (NLC) has said.
NLC Chairman Muhammad Swazuri said the disputed 28,000 acres were reserved for Lapsset in 2011, long before the commission and county governments became operational.
Lamu County and the NLC have been quarreling since reports emerged showing that besides the land known to be designated for Lapsset, an additional 28,000 acres, which the commission says is Government land but local county officials claim is private property, has been earmarked for the project.
Addressing journalists in Mombasa on Monday Dr Swazuri said Lapsset's intention to acquire the additional parcel located within Lamu County is legal.
Swazuri denied allegations by Lamu Governor Issa Timamy that NLC had arbitrarily decided to hand over the land to the Lapsset authority.
Mr Timamy, who spoke at the Witu Trading Centre on Sunday, said his government would reject the planned allocation and challenge any excision in court.
However, Swazuri said the land in question was reserved for the Lamu port in 2011 through the Ministry of Lands and maintained that "reservation is as good as allocation".
"What we are presently doing is facilitating paperwork to ensure the Lapsset authority gets the mother title to the land on which three berths have already been constructed," he said.
Timamy said his administration is currently resettling the landless in the county and that the NLC move will be a big setback as "it will lead to displacement of people and exacerbate the squatter menace". He said some of the villagers who will be displaced have title deeds.
