The Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA) is concerned after several of its parcels of land and houses were taken by private developers, compromising air safety in the country.
This is in despite there being regulations in place that buildings should not be within flight paths to avoid interfering with taking off and landing of aircrafts.
However, this is usually compromised once property lands in the hands of private developers going against International Civil Aviation Organization’s (ICAO) standards where Kenya is a council member state.
The Convention on International Civil Aviation, drafted and signed in 1944 by 54 nations, was established to promote cooperation and “create and preserve friendship and understanding among the nations and peoples of the world.”
Known more commonly today as the ‘Chicago Convention’, this landmark agreement established the core principles permitting international transport by air, and led to the creation of the specialised agency which has overseen it ever since – ICAO.
Aviation safety is at the core of ICAO’s fundamental Objectives.
KCAA raised the issue of encroachment on their land and property before Transport Cabinet Secretary James Macharia on July 22 during the ground breaking ceremony for the construction of a modern air traffic control tower at Wilson Airport.
Land scarcity, disregard for safety, and lack of ownership documents has led to real estate investors encroaching on airport land or flight paths.
At the Wilson Airport for instance, the ever mushrooming real estates and illegal encroachment prompted the KCAA to upgrade its air traffic control tower. The tower complex worth Sh163 million is set to be completed in the next 18 months.
During the ground breaking ceremony, the Kenya Association of Air Operators executive secretary Col (Rtd) Eutychus Karumba Waithaka, pleaded with Macharia to come to their rescue and help repossess encroached airport land.
“Encroachment of airport land poses a major safety risk not only to the aircraft but also to those who put up developments. Airport land countrywide is at risk of being grabbed,” Waithaka said.
Macharia said a team comprising of senior officials from his ministry, the KCAA director general and other officials in the aviation industry will be formed to look into the matter as matters safety must be addressed with immediacy. The CS said the aviation sector is very pertinent to the country’s economy as it generates about Sh24.8 billion to the economy, 1.1 per cent of the GDP.
The CS said the industry is very critical to agriculture, security, health and tourism in the country.
“Aviation has been given a special place in the Vision 2030 plan and modernisation of the airports not only at Wilson, is key to driving the country’s economic growth,” he said.
KCAA has also written to the National Land Commission (NLC) petitioning the commission to step in as a matter of urgency and help them recover what is rightfully theirs. The property ranging from prime land and buildings, are in Nairobi and Mombasa.
KCAA legal affairs manager Cyril Wayong’o said 87 acres now occupied by the East African School of Aviation was reserved for the school. However, the school was only issued with ownership documents for 57.10 acres with the rest going to third parties.
The land within which the East Africa School of Aviation was supposed to host aviation related industries, has since gotten into the hands of private developers who have constructed several permanent structures including residential houses.
“We did a search and found that it had been grabbed despite us having fenced the entire 87 acres, ”Wayong’o said.
He added that when an official from the Lands ministry got wind that KCAA was looking for a title deed, he volunteered to help process one for the authority. It is during processing of the title that KCAA noticed something was amiss.
“In 2003, cartels within the Lands ministry wanted to assist us to get the title deed but ended up grabbing over 30 acres. The parcel of land is now intact,” Wanyon’o said adding that the authority is confident that all the illegal titles will be revoked so the authority can rightfully have all the 87 acres back.
Wayong’o said a parcel of land located on the Nairobi-Mombasa road at Mlolongo, has also faced similar wrath by grabbers.
KCAA is in possession of the entire 132-acre parcel of land and has erected a perimeter wall to keep grabbers at bay grabbers, but does not have ownership documents.
But what troubles the state corporation is the fact that there has been illegal excisions of 11 plots but without titles being issued. KCAA now seeks NLC’s intervention for recovery of land by revoking illegal excisions,subsequently issuing one title for the 132 acres.
The land was originally 160 acres but 28 acres were excised for expansion of Mombasa road and construction of an access road.
Another parcel that KCAA is fighting tooth and nail to repossess is located along Langata road which landed in the hands of private developers in 2003.
KCAA also does not have ownership documentation for that parcel of land, now hosting a luxurious hotel with 120 accommodation rooms, including a grand presidential suite.
The grabbing appetite has also been extended to include encroachment of prime property belonging to KCAA located in Mombasa county.
The church has not been left behind as they now in occupation of a portion of land in Nyali staff housing estate.
Interestingly, correspondence files about the land mysteriously disappeared at the Mombasa land registry and are yet to be found.
KCAA, however, has a deed plan that it has submitted to the ministry but a title has yet to be issued.
At the Bamburi Staff Housing Estate, KCAA is in possession of 10 three unit bedrooms out of its 14 houses.Each house stands on half an acre.One house has been demolished while three others are in possession of third parties.
The Bamburi matter moved to court after the then Minster for Lands revoked the illegal titles by gazette notice dated November 2010, irking the alleged owners. At the time, KCAA management had not made any progress in securing title deeds.
Even as KCAA pursued the ministry for documentation, the complainants moved to court challenging the minister’s decision to revoke the land.
The High Court subsequently annulled the gazette notice through a judgement delivered on March 12 2012, declaring it “unconstitutional, null and void.”
The complainants are powerful and influential individuals still in power.
In the mean time, KCAA managed to secure allotment letters for two of the parcels (LR No.MN/)2397 and LR No. MN/12406 ). As they wait for the final documents to be processed, the complainants have moved to court to sue the authority.
The authority is now banking its hope on the NLC in its bid to have their property back.
KCAA legal affairs manager Cyril Wayong’o said the property in Miritini, Mombasa does not have any problem as it is jointly registered under the Kenya Revenue Authority and KCAA.
He said that properties belonging to KCAA and located in prime area s, are the ones being targeted by private developers. Wayong’o said the authority was shocked when it learnt that a parcel of land in Mtito Andei that was originally 13 acres had been reduced to three acres.
“We have 32 acres in Lodwar but nobody has touched it as it is not in a prime location,” he said adding that there are over 500 airports and airstrips in the country.