Greed and corrupt land deals have returned to haunt Kenya Railways Managing Director and senior politicians who served under former President Uhuru Kenyatta’s regime.
The MD is at the center of a land acquisition process by the Kenya Railways Company which irregularly acquired 74 acres of land where the SGR terminus sits.
The MD as per revelations before the lands committee received over 30 percent of proceeds made from the exaggerated pricing of the land where over Sh 2billion was paid and shared between senior officers who served in the transport ministry.
The MD is also at the center of a probe by parliament over the controversial purchase and payout of Sh 2.7 billion for a 55-acre piece of land occupied Darfur by the SGR and acquired from the Dupito Darfur settlement welfare scheme
Mainga and team are blamed for buying the land from Dupito settlement under compulsory acquisition but without following due process.
The committee heard that only selected members of the scheme were paid Sh 50,000 each.
Previous reports linked the MD for pocketing over Sh 500 million in the deal whose compensation to the settlement scheme remains a nighmare.
The schemes chairperson Likam Ole Kiambu told the lands committee that the two parcels of land were part of the Nairobi block 125/2173 situated in Embakasi, Nairobi measuring 93 acres.
At the same time, the MD is at the center of another sh21.9 million owed to retired employees with the money having been diverted to other uses.
The MD struggled to explain the 19-year delay in paying out Sh21.9 million owed to retired employees.
One of the retired employees explained that 270 former employees have been awaiting their benefits since 2006 with the MD playing mind games over the issue.
A report by the Auditor General on the 2022/2023 financial year indicates that Sh21,950,404 remains unclaimed in the State Department of Transport’s account at the Central Bank of Kenya.
The report further notes that no comprehensive list of beneficiaries has been provided, and it remains unclear why the responsibility for these payments was transferred from Kenya Railways to the State Department.
