Let Standard Gauge Railway work stop until proper compensation is done, Joho

Mombasa Governor Ali Hassan Joho addresses residents of Maganda settlement scheme at Jomvu in Mombasa. [Photo: Omondi Onyango/Standard]

Mombasa County leaders now say construction of the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) should be delayed until those affected are adequately compensated.

On Thursday, they asked squatters not to leave the land on an eight-kilometre stretch of the SGR route in Mombasa County until they are compensated.

Led by Mombasa County governor Hassan Ali Joho, the leaders claimed the money offered by the National Land Commission (NLC) to compensate most of the squatters and fishermen is very little, contrary to what was agreed earlier.

“The law is clear that if someone sits on a plot of land for at least 11 years, then it belongs to them. Now how do you give Sh5,000 compensation to someone who has been staying on a plot for 60 years? Let the work stop until adequate compensation is done,” said Joho when he visited Maganda Settlement Scheme in Jomvu.

Angry residents

He assured residents that verification of ownership will not victimise genuine residents of the scheme.

Chinese workers from SGR at a nearby site allegedly fled after angry residents threatened to beat them up.

Joho said he supports the railway project but opposes violent eviction of squatters without adequate compensation and alternative settlement. He said hundreds of residents in Kwa Skembo, Mkupe and Maganda face eviction to give way for the railway.

“One does not understand how NLC did the valuation that saw some people getting as low as Sh5,000 for a land they lived on for decades,” Joho lamented.

At Kwa Skembo, there was a brief confrontation between county government officials and the SGR workers after residents confronted and asked them to leave.

County lands executive committee member, Francis Thoya who accompanied the governor, said he will not relent in fighting for fair compensation for those to be affected by the construction of the railway.
“If I will be arrested defending your rights, so be it. How do you evict someone, disrupt his livelihood, then send him away with Sh20,000 as compensation,” asked Thoya.

Thoya said those affected by the project should be adequately compensated for continued livelihood.

Jomvu Member of Parliament Badi Twalib, said it was unfair for the government to pay millions in compensation to those affected by government projects elsewhere while paying peanuts to those affected by SGR in Mombasa.