Audit: Sh5.7b Kenya airports land grabbed

NAIROBI: Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) cannot account for part of its land estimated at about Sh5.7 billion, which may either be in the hands of grabbers or lost in irregular allocations.

This value may escalate as an audit revealed that some parcels of land claimed by the agency do not have the necessary documentation and have not been valued, while others have not been measured to determine their size and value.

The Auditor General's report on KAA dated June 2014, states that the authority has lost part of its land at JKIA, Wilson, Malindi and Lokichogoio to faceless grabbers and wants the agency to take action and reclaim it.

The report tabled in the National Assembly last Thursday, says that although the land is categorised as part of the non-current assets of KAA, which as at June 30, 2014 stood at Sh36,446,554,000, plots estimated at Sh5,729,915,000 referred to us operating leases, lack the necessary documents.

"The figure of Sh5,729,915,000 includes two parcels of land under plots numbers LR.13512 and 14231 at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, both of which have been allocated to third parties, while an undetermined value of land at Lokichogio Airport was also excluded from the balance," the report states.

Another unregistered parcel of land under reference KAA-D1-DA measuring 0.867 acres and valued at Sh4,335,000 was in the previous year, excluded from the operating lease, it adds.

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At Wilson Airport, Mr Edward Ouko reports that land registered as LR 2009/144443 of undetermined size and value was registered in favour of the authority on June 29, 2003. Two individuals filed a civil case in the High Court seeking a temporary injunction against KAA but on October 25, 2006, the court declined to issue any injunction.

The report also says the figure of the operating leases includes a portion of Malindi Airport under LR No. 7669 and measuring 0.8925 hectares, allocated to a church organisation, but on the other hand, excludes LR No. 8540 measuring 5912.5 sq.ft at the same airport, purported to have been allocated to a petroleum company.