I think it makes more sense to pull down properties on the Libra House side (on a compensation basis). Can you try to imagine how much it will cost the taxpayer to forcefully aquire Sameer Park, Tulip House, The Standard Centre, the next building, Panari Hotel etc. The other side has Libra house, vitafoam, stone factory (under construction), Subaru Kenya and Simba Colt.

You can guess which side's cheaper. But thats me (the tax payer), who said the gava cares about costs, when the money run's out they will ask me for more.

Until we have all the facts we cant assume that whole buildings will have to be brought down. In some cases, it might be merely parts of the land adjoining the buildings that are being compulsorily acquired by the Government under article 40(3) of the Constitution and the Land Acquisition Act (with prompt and full compensation) and not the buildings themselves. The owners have been invited to make their submissions to the Commissioner of Lands with regard to the intended acquisition by the Government and hearings on the same will be held in March. In addition, the owners have recourse to the courts under Article 43(3)(b) of the Constitution in case they wish to challenge the acquisition. The Government has done this in respect of so many properties in the past, the most recent being the compulsory acquisition of land to allow for the expansion of Thika Road. So let us not jump the gun.

NB: Nobody should mix up this issue with that of demolition of buildings on illegally acquired land.

Who owns libra House????



My only concern with this compulsary acqusation thing is......no investor is guaranteed of their property...


What will make a gava not compulsary acquire land for political reasons??

@Mpenzi

Hiyo katiba ni kuandikwa imeandikwa!!!

Implementing it is a different thing....


For what public interest is it destroying businesses that are major employers of the same public....

When you say public interest ...... who decides what public interest is????

The mentioned businesses are among the biggest employers ...e.g safcom.

Such simple thinking cant convince me.....

Before wabomoe ..... wajenge southern bypass ya kutoka athi river-ngong-kikuyu-wangige...

Let them bring this bypass to life with the money for compensation money that they are saying watapea the owners of those businesses...

Anything else itakuwa a great misappropriation of my money .... kama taxpayer!!

My goodness. This is not a groundbreaking law.

It is all over the world. In fact, Kenyas is more lenient as it is grounded in the constitution.

All land that you "own" belongs to gov't who are the people of Kenya. You have a right to that land as per the laws of the land. Part of the laws of the land say that the gov't can repossess your land in certain circumstances. The public good is one of them.

So if the gov't deems that taking this land is for the public good, then that is just the way it is.

now instead of coming up with public statements that the gov't wants to finish your people, get a good lawyer and make sure you don't miss the March sittings where you can air your grievances to the lands board.

One of your excuses should not be that you will lose business as the gov't will say that they will compensate you for the same.

Unless of course you are not the "true" owner of the land and know you may never be compensated for land irregularly acquired.

Safaricom is not affected. It is not the owner of the property. They will pack up and look for another building to lease.

Thousands of people's property were acquired along Thika road, what is so special about KTN that we should apply different standards in their case.

Mombasa road needs to be expanded like yesterday. Don't buy land next to it. As soon as the roads are over, next will come a railway line.

Guys,

Can anyone tell me why the targetted buildings on Msa rd are those done in the last three years? Apart from one piece that was a Kobil petrol station, ther rest were idle tracts just 3 years ago. This tell alot.

The thing refered to as Govt is not allknowing, All-intelligent, to necessarily make the best decision. The same "govt" was there when even the recent buildings e.g sammeer (which by the way they-govt are intending to rent) were being erected. Was the same now intelligent govt so stupid at that time not to know better than alert them.

Dont just argue that giovt has a right to exercise acquisition. Is it doing it in the best interest of the public(every kenyan in total/general).

But Melly is spoiling the case for all those involved by that kind of silly statements. Couldnt believe that it was actually coming from him. Imagine this guy was even CEO of CMA!

That said, surely the compensation involved would be so huge. Cant enginneers find a proper way to detour some of the expensive buildings. It might be much cheaper and even more stylish. Otherwise, ultimately we taxpayers will be the bearer of the cost even if it turns out not so intelligent govt decision.

One of the reasons I feel nothing for these guys is the serious flaw when buying property anywhere.

The current story is that they were only told about this yesterday. The truth of the matter is that most gov't planning is done before and in many cases decades before. Who wants to bet against the road plans being done some years ago and not last week as they claim?

It is up to you the buyer of the land to ensure that there are no road reserves or future gov't plans on your kaplot that you wish to buy.

I know of people who are selling land on these mombasa road plots because they know of future gov't plans and projects in their lands. They sell it to you then you come complain later.

Who never knew of the proposed expansion of mombasa road? Who was in charge of finding out that these properties were on a possible future gov't project? Do you remember the case of the guys in Runda?

I blame gov't for a lot of things but this one one case where we the people are usually wrong. Next time you buy a kaplot, really do your homework. These companies never did.

If I were KTN, I would be busy setting up a crew to film the demolition of their property just as they did when Nakumatt came down.

Funny. The article on Standard about this demolition shows how the govt is hell bent on doing an injustice to SG. They link this demolition to raid. Sasa mimi nauliza, what did the other over 40 businesses then do to have to face this? Too much propaganda from SG. You should check some of the comments on their KTN Fan Page on FB. Guys are really hating on SG.

Weka Link.