Fresh details have emerged on the Ksh35 billion Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) compensation scandal after the suspended Kenya Railways Corporation Chief Executive Officer Tom Chavangi appeared before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).
Members of the PAC learnt that former National Land Commission (NLC) boss Prof. Mohamad Abdalla Swazuri instructed Kenya Railways Corporation (KRC) to directly pay Sh12 billion to persons that had been directly affected by the SGR project contrary to the law.
According to the law, the money should have been remitted to National Lands Commission (NLC) which is required to conduct valuation before making payments.
Chavalangi claimed that NLC did not have systems at the time to process the compensation hence the reason KRC made the payments.
“The commission did not have proper systems to handle that kind of money. We didn’t have directorates such as valuation, finance; that is why we asked the KRC to continue paying directly,” he said.
The committee further discovered that some documents used in an additional Ksh23 billion in compensation were not verified as the documents did not have signatures authorizing the payments.
Furthermore, some of the compensations were done without conducting a search to ascertain land ownership.
At some point, the proposed railway line was rerouted after land compensation had already been processed to faceless, opaque landowners leading to loss of taxpayer’s money.
For Instance, KRC initially acquired 12.98 hectares for the construction of a station at Sultan Hamud, but later redesigned the SGR route resulting in the station’s relocation to Emali.
Former NLC officials are on the spot for spending Sh226 million earned in form of interest from compensation money that was held in its account at the National Bank of Kenya. The move was not approved by neither the Treasury nor the National Assembly.
Chavalangi failed to respond to most of the questions asked by the committee claiming that he didn't have documentation after he was barred by the Court from accessing the offices.
“I request this committee by virtue of the powers vested upon it to be kind enough to issue directions and or order the National Land Commission to grant me unfettered access to all the relevant documentation and records in their possession for purposes of preparing adequately,” said Chavangi.
The committee directed that NLC allows him to access the documents required but without contravening court orders.
In August 11 2018, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Noordin Haji approved corruption charges against Muhammad Swazuri, former KRC Managing Director Atanas Maina and five others over SGR compensations.
The audit done on the SGR compensations revealed fake compensation claims, double payments, over payments, inflation of land and payment to people whose land was never part of the SGR corridor.
