Mystery deepens in airports’ land grabbing scandal
Kenya Airport Authorities (KAA) has lost land worth more than Sh6 billion to private developers grabbed in airports and airstrips across the country.
The land, according to a report by the Public Investments Committee (PIC) tabled before the National Assembly, was grabbed between 2002 and 2016.
In total, the authority has lost thousands of acres of land over the years stolen by well-connected personalities during the Moi and Kibaki regimes.
In some instances, the committee found that titles of some airports such as Kisumu had “disappeared”.
In what baffled the committee, KAA was reluctant to recover pieces of land belonging to airports despite securing relevant court orders.
The team chaired by Abdulswamad Nassir has asked the Director of Criminal Investigations to investigate circumstances under which the Kisumu International Airport title deed disappeared.
DCI was also requested to probe circumstances under which the title deed of Manda Airport in Malindi disappeared only to be found a few days later and prosecute those responsible.
The scheme revolved around senior Lands ministry officials, powerful cartels and politicians.
Among the grabbed parcels are 12,619 acres in Nairobi belonging to the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.
The Nairobi land, the committee observed, was acquired by the government on April 26, 1971 for development of the airport.
KAA acquired a title deed for the land on July 26, 1996. But around 2002, the authority discovered that a group of people had obtained titles for it.
The authority then moved to court and instituted two cases against the group and secured temporary orders to restrain the defendants from dealing with the disputed land.
“But despite the court orders to maintain the status quo, the defendants continued to sell, sub-divide and develop the land falling under the contentious area,” reads the report.
The committee said in November 2011, KAA demolished houses belonging to private developers on the disputed land.
But the developers sued the authority and both their cases are yet to be determined.
The committee has recommended that the then KAA managing director Stephen Gichuki be reprimanded for not repossessing the grabbed Wilson Airport land despite a court ruling awarding returning it to the authority.
Church organisation
PIC further advises the KAA officials to repossess airport land at Wilson within three months of adoption of the report.
“The management should always ensure safe custody of the KAA documents to avoid arbitrary loss akin to the temporary loss of the Kisumu Airport title which cannot be traced to date,” it advises.
At the Wilson Airport, the report reads, a land parcel of undetermined size and value was registered in favour of the authority on July 29, 2003.
However, two entities filed a case in the High Court claiming ownership of the land.
However, October 25, 2006, the High court ruled in favour of the authority. The court held that the parcel was public land belonging to authority which was irregularly allocated to one of the entities.
However, despite the court ruling, KAA has made no effort to take possession of the land.
The House team also found that a portion of Malindi Airport land measuring 2.205 acres was allocated to a church organisation while another 0.1357 acres was given to a petroleum company.
With regard to Wilson Airport Land, the management informed the committee that the authority sought the intervention of the National Lands Commission (NLC) on review of grant and whose officials visited Wilson Airport on October 19, 2017.
The officials told the commission eviction notices were issued to private entities within land reserved as Aerodrome Reserve.
KAA wanted the commission to issue eviction notices to private persons unlawfully occupying public and for the Registrar of Lands to revoke their titles.
The authority also wanted the NLC to investigate allocation of titles to private persons whose activities could impede the safety of operations at Wilson Airport.
In addition, upon legally or regularly acquiring the land, the said land be allocated to KAA to safeguard safety and security of the Airport.
Regarding the Malindi Airport, the committee was informed that the Baptist Convention of Kenya sits on airport land.
Authority management through former managing director Jonny Andersen said the disputed plot located within Malindi airport was allocated by the government to Kenya Oil Company for construction of an oil depot and aviation facilities.
The committee also wants investigators to probe the circumstances under which another piece of land measuring 0.1902 Ha, also belonging to the KAA, was illegally allocated to one Julian Wanjiku Kariuki.
The House team asked the NLC to confirm that titles to Kisumu and Manda airports have not been changed.
