Hotel’s perimeter wall on Mombasa public beach torn down

By NGUMBAO KITHI

 MOMBASA; KENYA:

A hotel’s perimeter wall erected on a public beach in Mombasa has been torn down.

Officials of the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC), the National Land Commission and civil society advocates on Thursday tore down the wall around Coral Palm Beach Hotel alleging it was illegally erected to block civilian access to the beach.

Officials said that the property and the demolished wall are worth about Sh100million and threatened more demolitions.

“This demolition is a warning to the unscrupulous business people. They must know that access to the beach is free and anybody blocking it is illegal,” said Halakhe Waqo, the CEO of EACC during the demolition.

Waqo waved a court order barring Zumzum Investments Limited from “blocking, installing road blocks, constructing on, or in any way interfering with the free flow of vehicle and human traffic along the thirty metre wide road.”

The order issued on November 1 last year by Justice Francis Tuiyot also stopped Zumzum from interfering with the Shanzu Physical Development Plan of 1988.

Waqo said the wall was in violation of these plans and the court order.

He warned of further demolitions of property built on the beach in Tudor, Kizingo and Nyali estates against public interest.

According to Waqo, 40 roads to the beach have allegedly been grabbed and blocked by private developers making it impossible for wananchi to access the beaches. He said the commission has gone to court to force the reopening of these roads. The chairman of the land commission, Dr Mohamed Swazuri hailed yesterday’s demolition and urged other private developers who have grabbed similar property to surrender it.

Armed police

“We are going to reclaim the public land taken away by unscrupulous people,” Swazuri said adding that the Government has records of all grabbed beach property.

During the demolition, bulldozers supervised by armed police officers could be heard roaring. “This is a warning to any land grabber that we are coming for them. They must surrender the land or else we take it away,” Swazuri said. An official from the Kenya Urban Roads Authority who asked not to be named confirmed that there were 40 contested beach plots.

The official said blocking of access to the beach has caused congestion at the Jomo Kenyatta public beach in Mombasa.

Mombasa County Executive Committee member in charge of infrastructure, Mr Mohamed Abbas, said the devolved government would work with the anti-corruption commission to recapture all grabbed land.

The Muslim for Human Rights Executive Director Khalid Hussein who was involved in the demolition said the public has the right to retake public property from illegal occupiers.