Mombasa County Government officials on Wednesday last week served the employees of China Road and Bridge Corporation with a notice to stop any works at a site that was being prepared for the construction of the Standard Gauge Railway.
During the process, some of the CRBC employees were roughed up by County Government officials on grounds that they were at the site illegally. The CRBC officials were on site at Maganda in Jomvu to start construction of the new railway.
CRBC had moved to the site after the National Land Commission (NLC), the body legally mandated to acquire land for SGR, issued the access letter giving Kenya Railways Corporation (KRC, the Client) and contractor (CRBC) the right to the land for railway construction.
“There is documentation showing that these procedures were carried out within law and in consultation with landowners and the area residents,” says CRBC.
In line with this, CRBC says:
- CRBC is entitled to start construction as permitted by NLC who has been in charge of land acquisition and compensation to landowners.
- CRBC did not compel any residents to leave the area. CRBC only followed NLC’s permit to enter the site and start works.
- CRBC as the contractor is not obligated to resettle the residents. Kenya Railways bears this responsibility and we wish to note that KRC is already implementing a resettlement plan.
- The actions by the County Government to stop project construction has no legal basis according to the land act on compulsory acquisition for public purposes.
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