The Lamu government has rejected a plan by the National Land Commission to allocate 1,700 hectares to Cordison International for a power generation project.
Last month, the commission published a notice of intention to allocate the land to the company for a Sh21 billion wind generating project at Kiongwe in Mpeketoni, Lamu West.
This contravenes NLC’s move to issue a title deed for 3,400 acres of the same piece of land to The Kenwind (K) Limited for the establishment of the same project.
The latter project was sponsored by Baharini Wind Power Project, a consortium of Elicio company which is a Belgium firm in coordination with the Kenyan firm-Kenwind Holdings Limited Company.
It was expected to generate 90 megawatts of power upon completion.
It was however nullified in July 2020 by the Lamu county assembly citing failure by the investor to comply with the required conditions, resulting in confusion, chaos and displacements among the communities and landowners.
Speaking on Wednesday, Lamu county secretary John Mburu said the county had written to the NLC chairman Gershom Otachi Bw'Omanwa objecting to the notice to issue the same land to a different company, Cordison International.
As part of its objection defence, Lamu listed several factors among them, the land in question is already occupied and the county has since subdivided it in preparation for the issuance of title deeds to nearly 2,000 landless families that have lived in the land for years.
“Therefore there is no land within the boundaries and delimits of PDP No. LMU/1281/01/016 that may be allocated,” read the notice.
The county government says since 2011, the Ministry of Energy has never okayed or approved the power generation project envisioned in the specified allocation.
Lamu government says according to the most recent Energy Regulatory Authority guidelines and findings, no new energy projects or related approvals will be accepted until 2027, as all previously issued approvals have been implemented by the proponents, who have set in motion and begun the previously approved energy-generating activities.
Mburu said it does not make sense to allocate the land to the Cordison International company as the same land had already been acquired by the Kenwind company and a title deed issued.
“The title deed issued to Kenwind (K) Limited was by the NLC and therefore should be in their possession and as such allocating the land comprised in PDP No. LMU/1281/01/016 would amount to overlap on an already registered land belonging to Kenwind (K) Limited,” Mburu said.
The county government also cited a lack of public participation in the said land and that any allocation would be unconstitutional and illegal.
Mburu, in the notice, said the area covered under the coordinates and cadastral areas in the outlawed PDP No. LMU/1281/01/016 has 2000 squatters as settlers who were not picked during the ground report stage of the outlawed PDP’s preparation and whose views and objections were vital before the said outlawed PDP was prepared.
“It is on this basis that the Lamu government objects to the purported and intended allocation of 1,700 hectares of land to the Cordisons International (K) Limited,” read the notice.
Edited by Kiilu Damaris
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