THE STANDARD
KENYA
City Cabanas hotel located at the junction of Airport North Road and Mombasa Road in Nairobi. [Courtesy]
National Lands Commission (NLC) yesterday held a crisis meeting over the controversial payout of Sh1.5 billion to the owner of a city hotel as compensation for compulsory acquisition of land for construction of the Nairobi Expressway.
The payment was done despite the High Court barring NLC from transacting over the land until a case in court is determined.
On December 11, last year, the High Court in Nairobi gave an injunction for payment of the cash to Rose Njeri Macharia, the proprietor of City Cabanas and Cabanas park until the land dispute with Simandi Investments Limited was determined.
Govt Buys Iconic City Cabanas Club for Ksh1.5 Billion
President Uhuru Kenyatta toasting
File
The government has finished the compulsory acquisition of the famous City Cabanas along Mombasa Road at a cost of Ksh1.5 billion in a transaction that has been termed as controversial.
Hotel owner Rosaline Njeri Macharia was paid the money by the National Lands Commission on behalf of the Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA).
According to the transfer documents, the money was paid in installments of Ksh1 billion, Ksh522.3 million and Ksh25 million to the businesswoman s accounts.
Entrance to the famous City Cabanas Hotel in Nairobi
File
Controversy rocks City Hall over Sh500M illegal payments to suspicious contractors
Just a few days after taking over as Nairobi acting Governor, Ann Kananu has found herself in hot soup over illegal payment of Sh494 million to contractors under functions which have already been transffered to the Nairobi Metropolitan Services.
Among those who are receiving the illegal payments is Senate Speaker Ken Lusaka whose company Wakiwa Company Ltd is being paid Sh20 million under the Environment department despite the function being among the transffered functions under NMS.
Kananu in cahoots with the corrupt Matopeni MCA Abdi Guyo have allegedly colluded to illegally pay the millions to contractors who are majority from the Somali community.
THE STANDARD
NAIROBI
In this Tuesday, May 17, 1994 file photo, refugees who fled the ethnic bloodbath in neighboring Rwanda carry water containers back to their huts at the Benaco refugee camp in Tanzania, near the border with Rwanda. (AP Photo/Karsten Thielker, File)
The former National Lands Commission deputy director of investigations who died on Monday was an acclaimed document examiner who nailed key masterminds of the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
Antipas Nyanjwa examined practically every major piece of evidence disputed by accused persons or advanced by prosecutions, involving big criminal files locally and regionally.
As an expert witness, Nyanjwa’s opinion weighed heavily on matters at hand, often turning tables on prosecution and defense alike.