State revokes sale of Jomo Kenyatta Beach

By LINAH BENYAWA

Mombasa County

Mombasa residents and beach users have a reason to smile after the popular Jomo Kenyatta public beach (popularly known as Pirates Beach) was saved from private developers and returned back to the public.

Pomp and colour marked the ceremony at the weekend, when the National Heritage and Culture PS Jacob ole Miaron issued the title deeds to the National Museums of Kenya (NMK), which has been entrusted as the custodian of the parcels of land.

During the ceremony at the public beach, Miaron put everyone who had grabbed public land on notice, saying such land would revert to the public.

The National Museums of Kenya will not allow anyone to claim ownership of this land, as the beach is now a public recreational centre. [PHOTO: MAARUFU MOHAMED/STANDARD]

"I want to warn all land grabbers who have encroached public land to return the land because we would revoke all the title deeds of the illegally owned plots," he said.

The public beach, whose title deeds were formally owned by the Mombasa Municipal Council before plots were sold to private developers, is now a national monument under protection by the NMK.

Miaron urged NMK to come up with programmes and management plans for stakeholders within the beach plots.

He asked the stakeholders to ensure they conducted business in an organised manner.

"This is now a recreational site and because NMK has been entrusted to take care of the land, I would like to ask them to make sure that business is conducted in a systematic manner so that we still maintain space for local and foreign tourists," Miaron said. The public beach land was repossessed after the Ministry of Lands directed the Commissioner of Lands to revoke title deed issued to Mombasa Municipal Council, which had in turn allocated part of it to private developers.

Irregular allocations

The council had been faulted over the irregular allocations that have seen a half of the original land parceled out to powerful individuals for private development.

The management of three-hectare Uhuru Gardens was also bestowed to NMK, after the council sold the parcel to private developers in a dubious manner.

NMK Director General Idle Omar Farah promised to come up with an integrated management system that would bring stakeholders together.

"We will do whatever it takes to ensure the public benefits from the heritage. We will provide a secretariat to help them develop beach to a well organised place," said Dr Farah.

NMK Board Chairman Issa Timamy said they would protect the plot from greedy individuals who wanted to encroach the parcel of land.