Kenyans occupying Moi International Airport land in Mombasa face possible eviction after Parliament directed the government to reclaim all encroached airport land.

🇰🇪 Breaking It Down

Transport Committee on Thursday, September 24, directed Aviation Principal Secretary Teresia Mbaika and Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) Managing Director Moses Wekesa to submit a report detailing all encroached airport land.

The report is expected to list the individuals and companies occupying or using parcels at Moi Airport as the government moves to secure land required for the airport's planned expansion.

Committee Chairperson George Kariuki issued the directive after KAA cited land encroachment among major challenges facing the authorit y's plans to expand Moi International Airport.

📌 What You Need to Know

The committee questioned how KAA planned to increase the airport's capacity from the current 2.5 million passengers to 4.5 million without first securing the land required for the expansion.

"This Committee needs to know how much airport land has been encroached upon and who is doing it. When you tell us that you want to increase the airport's capacity from 2.5 million to 4.5 million passengers yet you have not secured the land, how will this happen?" Kariuki asked.

Wekesa told the Committee that KAA had experienced challenges in securing the affected land despite pursuing several cases in court and implementing recommendations contained in previous reports.

"We are happy to have this discussion with you. We face challenges in implementing recommendations from the reports we have put together. We are pursuing this encroachment based on previous reports," Wekesa said.

He disclosed that KAA had previously deployed General Service Unit (GSU) officers to guard some of the land outside the airport but said the officers were later instructed to leave.

"I want to cite a case here. We have been using GSU officers to guard the land outside the airport, but they received instructions to leave, and all these cases are in court," Wekesa added.

📰 Source: Kenyans.co.ke