Land owners demand compensation from the Sagana-Marua road works

The Mountain Journal

Landowners who gave up their parcels for the dualling of the Sagana-Marua road have refused to vacate citing delayed compensation from the government.

The residents mainly from Karatina town and around the proposed Marua interchange, fear they may never receive the payout once the contractor completes work.

Sh4.8 billion had been set aside for compensation for the 2,350 project affected persons.

Some 1,014 of the beneficiaries are residents of Kirinyaga county while 1,350 are from neighbouring Nyeri county.

A report by Kenya National Highway Authority shows only 453 of the landowners from Nyeri have been compensated to date, leaving 897 pending claims.

Kirinyaga is on the lead with at least 92 per cent or 932 families having already received their claims.

“Delayed payment of money for acquisition of affected land and property on some sections of the road has resulted to contractor suspending works on this specific road. The unavailable section in total is 7.598km out of 36km,” reads part of a report.