President Uhuru Kenyatta's ambitious Lapsset project (Lamu Port and Lamu-Southern Sudan-Ethiopia Transport Corridor) has run into more headwinds after Garissa Governor Ali Korane ordered Lapsset officials surveying land meant for the project in the county to defer the exercise forthwith.
The Kenya News Agency was first to report on Monday, December 16, that Korane took issue with the Lapsset officials stating that his county had not been consulted before the officials started surveying the land.
“Land is a devolved function and all departments that deal with land are under the county government. The Lapsset project should, therefore, engage the county government through the relevant departments on the land they intend to use for the project,” he stated.
The governor, reacting to information that the officials in the Ksh2.5 trillion project had started prospecting for land in parts of Ijara and Fafi sub-counties, insisted that land in Garissa County and the North-Eastern region was communal and thus held in trust by the respective communities.
“As elected leaders and the custodians of the land, we are really worried, and ask for the situation to be corrected and the laid down procedures on government acquisition of land meant for projects followed to the letter,” he stated.
While the governor made it clear that he was not opposed to the project, he did not take kindly the fact that Lapsset officials overlooked his authority as the county head.
"We want to know from Lapsset who authorised them to survey land in Garissa County without the input of the county government. This is wrong and it is an acceptable,” he stated with finality.
Korane's moves come less than two months after President Uhuru Kenyatta decried the delays in the project which was set to be completed in 2018 after its official inception in 2016.
Reports from the Daily Nation on September 28, 2019, indicate that Uhuru, during his visit to the Lamu Port and the adjacent infrastructure projects that form the Lamu Port-South Sudan-Ethiopia Transport (Lapsset) corridor lamented about the project’s slow pace.
The publication reported that Uhuru was unimpressed by the progress of the infrastructure outside the port, especially the roads meant to link the port with the hinterland and called upon the officials to speed it up.
The Ksh2.5 trillion project envisions the construction of a port, power plant, railway and other facilities from the Lamu port, through to South Sudan and Ethiopia.
