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The Kenya Railways Corporation is on the spot after it emerged that it has allocated a piece of land along Kampala Road, in Nairobi’s  Industrial area to a private developer, sparking uproar from neighbouring industries.

According to owners of the affected industries, the developer identified as Mumodi Logistics Limited has covered the drainage and sewer lines.

The affected industries include East African Breweries Limited (EABL), Associated Battery Manufacturers (ABM), British American Tobacco (BAT) and Print Pak among others.

“As a company, we are really perturbed by the happenings. As we speak, Kenya Railways has already backfilled the area and we are worried that in case of any downpour, our drainage will really be affected,” said ABM Engineering Manager Wilson Olando.

No response

Olando said that despite expressing their concerns through writing to Kenya Railways, no prompt response has been given and the developer has continued to build structures on the contested land.

“The development is totally illegal, the developer has gone ahead even without the Environmental Assessment Report has not been done. Everything is continuing normally despite us raising serious concerns,” said Olando.

Olando said that the new developer has taken over the land that anytime they raise the complaints to the Kenya Railways they usually reverted back to the developer.

When contacted, Managing Director Kenya Railways Phillip Mainga did not respond to our calls nor replied to our text messages.

A document by Mumodi Logistics seen by People Daily shows that the company entered an agreement with Kenya Railways for the lease from June 2024 until June 2032. According to the agreement, the tenant, Mumodi Logistics Limited was supposed to pay Sh220,000 a month.

This is not the first time Kenya Railways has been on the spot over irregular allocation of land.

Public land

Last year, it emerged that the authority had allocated more than 544 parcels of public land to individuals.

According to a report of the audited accounts of KRC for the financial year 2018/2019, the Commissioner of Lands and the defunct local authorities allocated the land to third parties without the consent of the corporation.

The committee heard that a three-acre piece of land at the Limuru Railway Station, a two-acre piece at the Kikuyu Railway Station, and parcels of land adjacent to the Mombasa station measuring between 0.75 and one acre have been irregularly given out.

“Further, another 529 parcels of land have been illegally allocated across the country. However, management has sought court intervention to repossess twenty-seven (27) parcels of land,” said the audit.

The committee sought to know whether the land issued out was initially owned by the corporation and the amount in land rates accrued from the properties.

Mainga has over time held that the land was lawfully leased for development and the corporation was accruing income. He explained that in the case of Limuru, 1.05 out of 40 acres were awarded for go-downs. The land, he said, was later subdivided into eight industrial plots.

“Kenya Railways issued leasehold grants to interested developers for the development of go-downs and warehouses for a term of 99 years with effect from June 1 1948. The leases were later registered with the Commissioner of Lands. The grantees pay basic land rent to the corporation which holds the freehold interest over the properties,” said Mainga.