National Land Commission (NLC) will on March 5, release Ksh1.2 billion to the Kenya Railways Retirement Pension Scheme as part of the compensation for the land on which Nairobi Railways Club sits.
This is part of the Ksh 5 billion that the treasury set aside to acquire a section of Nairobi Railways Club which will be used for the expansion of Uhuru Highway and the construction of the Green Park bus terminus.
NLC chairperson Gershom Otachi said that plans to compensate the pensioners had been finalized.
“We have been on this matter for some time now but we are happy that we are making some progress. As we have agreed, by tomorrow we expect that NLC will start to pay Ksh 1.2 billion,” said Otachi, during a meeting with the Senate Committee of Labour and Social Welfare on Thursday, March 4.
Senate Committee Chair Johnson Sakaja urged pensioners to work with the commission to get the compensation as the funds had already been disbursed by the Treasury to NLC.
“Instead of casting aspersions at the process, work with this commission to ensure you get what is yours,” he said.
The government, in September 2020, acquired another piece of land belonging to the Kenya Railways Retirement Benefits Scheme soon after carrying out demolitions of businesses erected at the Nairobi Lunar Park and those that sit on the edge of Uhuru Park.
Sakaja also highlighted that the Ksh 5 billion amount would cater for the pensioners’ needs for the next six years.
“The scheme is also looking at a number of properties that it has put up for sale in Nairobi’s Valley Road and Upper Hill. Once these amounts are realised, the problems of railways pensioners will have been sorted out,” added Sakaja
Part of the land will be used in the Ksh62 billion Nairobi Expressway project, a double-decker road whose construction commenced in July 2020 with the promise of reducing the traffic jam problem in Nairobi's Mombasa Road, Uhuru Highway and Waiyaki Way.
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