Koinange family evicted from property by NSSF

Hired youths remove property from Palm City Grill and Entertainment in Mombasa County yesterday. [PHOTO: KELVIN KARANI/STANDARD]

The ownership tussle over a piece of land pitting the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) and the Koinange family intensified yesterday after the Fund evicted the tenant on the 14-acre parcel in Bamburi, Mombasa County.

NSSF and the Koinange family both lay claim to the land valued at Sh1.4 billion on which several hotels and catering establishments are built.

Yesterday NSSF officials arrived at the hotels in the afternoon accompanied by police officers who stood guard as owners of the high end hotel businesses on the parcel of land removed furniture, grills and food stuff from the building. Daniel Waiganjo, a son of the late former powerful Minister of State in the Office of the President and director of Palm City Grill and Entertainment, said this was the first time an issue of ownership had arisen in 15 years.

Waiganjo insisted that he owned the property even though he did not have a title deed. He said he had built his premises after staying on a three-acre plot for a several years.

He said he had invested Sh17 million in the hotel business that also employed 50 employees.

“By virtue of being here for 15 years without anybody asking me any question means the land is mine,” said Waiganjo. The eviction order issued by an Environment and Land Court did not state the date the order was to be executed.

The NSSF supervised the eviction of two other businesses on the plot of land as armed police kept guard. NSSF Corporate Affairs Officer Christopher Khisa said the land, whose acreage stood at 14 acres and is valued at Sh1.4 billion, had been at the centre of a court battle since 2000.  The NSSF General Manager in charge of Corporate Affairs, Mr Austin Ouko, said this was public land and had been acquired by the Fund in 1994.