Fresh row over SGR compensation package for victims in Mombasa

Fishermen and women during a meeting with Kenya Railways MD Atanas Maina and Mombasa Lands Executive Anthony Njaramba on Saturday. [Photo: KELVIN KARANI/STANDARD]

MOMBASA: A fresh dispute has erupted between the county government and Kenya Railways (KR) over compensation of 1,700 fishermen and women. The fishing fraternity is set to be affected by the construction of the standard gauge railway (SGR).

The county claimed the State had slashed the amount initially budgeted to compensate the fishermen.

Lands Executive Anthony Njaramba claimed the KR board had altered the agreed Sh980 million, which was supposed to be used to compensate the victims.

“We had initially agreed on a compensation a package of Sh2.1 billion. We later sat with the KR team and reduced the amount to Sh980 million. Now we hear the amount has been reduced and I can assure you we’ll not accept the altered figure,” said Mr Njaramba.

But KR Managing Director Atanas Maina declined to clarify whether the Sh980 million for compensation had been further slashed, saying the KR board would meet with county government officials next week to discuss, among other things, the compensation package.

Speaking during a charged meeting at Liwatoni Hall at Fisheries Department, Njaramba and the fisher folk’s representatives acting under the auspices of Beach Management Unit (BMU) accused KR of delaying the compensation.

Njaramba said the residents had been waiting for compensation since 2014 yet their counterparts in Taita Taveta and other areas in the region affected by SGR had been compensated.

26 DEAD

 “The SGR construction and the resulting eviction has disrupted the economic mainstay of the fishermen, who eked a living fishing and selling lobsters and prawns,” said Njaramba.

He added: “It is very unfair that the fishermen have not been compensated yet the project is 70 per cent complete. These people have suffered enough and we’re kindly asking the KR board to speed up the compensation process, which is one of the rights guaranteed by the Constitution.”

He said it was sad that 26 fishermen had died before being compensated, adding that under normal circumstances, those affected by a project are compensated before the project begins. But Maina tried to calm the fisher folk by promising a meeting with the county government and the board in two weeks to speed up the process.

SPEEDY COMPENSATION

“We are sorry for the delay in compensation but I can assure you that you will be paid your money. Even the families of the deceased will be paid their share of the compensation,” said Maina.

But Maina’s pronouncement opened a wave of grievances from the fisher folk, who accused KR officials of lying to them. “You’ve been shoving us left, right and centre. You keep on changing tune on the compensation date for months now. Our means of livelihood, which is fishing, has been disrupted and the right thing to is to compensate us,” said Mombasa County BMU Network Chairman Kelly Konde.

“We’re asking for speedy compensation because as at now, we even don’t have money to go to hospital. Does it mean that the construction of the railway will continue as our members continue to die?” posed Mohamed Khamis.

Njaramba promised the fisher folk that Governor Hassan Ali Joho would personally intervene to speed up the compensation.