“We seriously need an airport here.“
This was the plea by Nakuru Deputy Governor Joseph Rutto when he met with officials from the Kenya Airports Authority (KAA).
Scandals surrounding the construction of the airport took centre stage on Tuesday, November 3, even as KAA officials maintained that the land in question belongs to government.
Yatich Kangugo, the authority’s acting managing director, presented original copies of the title deed saying:
“…the ownership of the land is not in dispute, it belongs to the government and is managed by KAA” adding that those claiming the land belongs to them are fraudsters.
Plans for construction were initiated in 2004 and a ground breaking ceremony expected near the Kenya Pipeline depot, but according to the Standard, it stalled under unclear circumstances.
A few years later, reports indicated that internally displaced persons (IDPs) were starting to settle on the 642 acre piece of land that the government had acquired to build the airport.
In 2011, the project was revived after the government set aside KSh 250 million to kick start the process and resettled the IDPs in Subukia. Then roads minister Lee Kinyanjui told the Business Daily:
“We appreciate the investment attraction that Nakuru continues to receive and soon it will become a commercial city while Nairobi becomes the government’s seat of power.”
The plan was to serve 1 million travellers annually and boost Nakuru’s economic growth by providing an alternative route for flights diverted from Nairobi.
Instead of flights from the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) being redirected to Mombasa or Entebbe in Uganda during an emergency, they would make a stopover in Nakuru, only 150km away.
However, construction was again derailed in 2013, after the National Environmental Authority (Nema) warned that the land is located on the migratory route of flamingos, the main tourist attraction in Nakuru.
Flamingoes in Lake Nakuru.
Two other locations were then proposed: one in Njoro and the other in Naivasha, but Governor Kinuthia Mbugua dismissed the first one saying the airstrip with a 1.4 Km runway was in a poor state and needed renovation, the Standard reports.
The Kenya National Chambers of Commerce and Industry (KNCCI) recently urged the government to resolve the land issue that has stalled the Nakuru airport project for the past 10 years.
“Flower farmers, especially in Naivasha sub-county, will have a chance to exploit a huge market by increasing their flower exports to Europe and the United States,” Naivasha KNCCI chairman Kamau Njuguna as quoted by theBusiness Daily in June 2015.
Last month, a businessman also found himself caught in the Nakuru airport land tussle after he was accused of selling what the government had earmarked for construction. Mr David Thuo however denied the claims saying government had planned to purchase the land but the move stalled after the NEMA report.
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