Lamu, KENYA: Landowners whose lands were acquired for the establishment of a coal plant in Lamu county have rejected the National Lands Commission’s offer to pay them Sh.800,000 per acre as compensation for the lands.
The land owners are instead demanding Sh.2Million per acre compensation and said that they will not accept anything less than that.
Speaking in Lamu on Saturday,they expressed their disgruntlement over the Sh.800,000 per acre compensation and said the NLC was forcing it on them.
They said there was need for the figure to go up since their lands were fully developed with some having put up residences and farms on the lands.
The land owners said their lands had in fact more value compared to the LAPPSET lands yet the owners were given Sh.1.5 million per acre compensation and wondered why their own figure was meager.
“NLC insists that they pay us only Sh.800,000 per acre as compensation but our lands are more developed than the Lapsset lands yet the Lapsset owners were given Sh.1.5 million per acre. Why must we take such a small amount?we demand Sh.2Million per acre or else we won’t release our lands at all,”said Omar Ahmed.
They have also accused the NLC for trying to dupe them of their lands in plain sight by using questionable means to conduct surveys of their lands.
“For instance is you had 10 acres,after the NLC survey you are told you have only 4 acres,many of us are shocked at how 10 acres can drop to 4 just like that and the NLC doesn’t want to listen to the queries we have on that.thats unfair and it’s a con game,”said Yeri Athman.
This comes a week after the NLC announced completion of the verification and identification exercise for genuine land owners to be compensated for their lands that were acquired for the coal plant.
A total of 514 individuals out of the original list of 615 are set to be paid up by the NLC for their lands.
A total of 975 acres have been acquired for the Sh.200 billion coal plant which is expected to generate at least 1,050MW of power once completed.
