A large number of families and traders affected by Kenya Railways projects in Laini Saba are yet to receive the homes and business spaces promised under the resettlement programme, with residents now asking the Senate to establish what went wrong.
The matter came before the Senate Standing Committee on Roads, Transportation and Housing after petitioners complained that the Resettlement Action Plan (RAP) had left many beneficiaries unsettled while some of those already given houses were struggling with basic services.
The figures presented to the committee painted a wide gap between the people identified for resettlement and those who have actually received units.
Only 256 of the 1,432 residential occupants enumerated in Laini Saba had received houses. Among traders, 583 of the 833 people listed as business occupants had been allocated stalls.
Petitioners Victor Wamae and Woodley/Kenyatta Golf Course MCA Davidson DNG Ngibuini said those missing from the allocations had been left to depend on temporary or decanting sites, with some traders forced to work from unsuitable locations.
But even receiving a house has not necessarily meant that a beneficiary can comfortably occupy it.
Ngibuini told senators that some of the facilities at the housing sites could not be used because essential connections had not been provided.
“You know to use the washroom. They can’t use the toilets because there is no sewer connection. There is no water, and that’s why some people have now even invaded those toilets and they are using the toilets as houses, as unbelievable as it sounds,” Ngibuini said.
Wamae said the problem was particularly evident in houses constructed and handed over through the RAP, arguing that the units still lacked important services.
“What happened in the past is that Resettlement Action Plan, as you can see in the document, and Chair, the Kenya Railways houses were built, and the Kenya Railways houses were handed over to the affected persons. But there’s a serious issue where, if you look at those houses as they are today, the houses are incomplete,” he said.
“One, there’s no water connection in those houses,” he added.
The petitioners also drew attention to a separate construction problem at Jamhuri, behind the Nairobi City County Inspectorate Trading Centre.
They said work on Phase Two had stopped after the project reportedly ran out of funds. Traders who had secured houses through balloting were said to be among those still waiting, with some remaining at the Magade decanting site.
The dispute also raised questions about who qualifies for resettlement and the documents used to identify beneficiaries.
Marsabit Senator Mohamed Chute, who chaired the hearing, asked the petitioners to provide figures that could be verified, warning that conflicting numbers would make it difficult for the committee to establish the true scale of the problem.
Nominated Senator Hamida Kibwana took the inquiry further by questioning how the affected occupants had come to live on railway land and what records supported their claims.
“The bottom line is the Kenya Railways wanted to get back their land, full stop,” she said.
Kibwana asked the petitioners to produce allotment letters, titles, proof of rent payments and other documents showing the basis of their occupation.
She also wanted the committee to receive a list of people who had won ballots for houses so that it could establish who had received units and who remained without them.
“But then when you get to the nitty gritty of the documentation and don’t have any documentation, now, whom are you paying rent to? Because Nairobi, there are no free things, you know,” Kibwana said.
She sought clarification on whether rent had been paid to the City Council or another authority and asked the petitioners to provide documents to support the claims.
Nominated Senator Peris Tobiko, meanwhile, raised concern about families still waiting for resettlement, particularly with forecasts of heavy rainfall.
“Where are you living right now? Considering, of course, the predictions of the meteorological people that there’s going to be rain and a lot of rain. Where are you living? Are you in safe places?” she asked.
Tobiko said the protection of the affected families should be considered as the committee examines the wider resettlement dispute.
She also asked whether beneficiaries were expected to pay for the houses or whether the units were being provided under the resettlement arrangement.
Apart from housing, the petitioners complained that some of the stalls provided to traders were too small and badly placed.
They said the shortcomings had left some traders operating along roads and close to railway tracks. They proposed that sections of the railway reserve could be used for organised trading while railway rehabilitation is under way, provided such use is properly planned and meets legal requirements.
Other complaints included flooding, poor drainage and a lack of ramps for persons with disabilities.
The residents also opposed plans to remove a police post serving Woodley and Isabel wards, arguing that the facility remains important to security in the area.
The petitioners want access to RAP records, including enumeration information and details of the money allocated to the programme.
They are also seeking investigations into alleged procurement and contractor irregularities, completion and improvement of the stalls, compensation for disruption of livelihoods and clarification of the legal status of the land occupied by the affected people.
The committee has now asked the petitioners to submit a complete breakdown of beneficiaries who received houses and stalls and those who did not.
They must also provide copies of lease agreements and other supporting documents, which will be compared with records held by Kenya Railways.
The exercise is intended to establish the actual number of people covered by the programme, identify any beneficiaries who may have been excluded and determine whether there are differences between the various records used in implementing the RAP.
Nominated Senator Miraj Abdillahi Abdulrahman also attended the sitting.