Kilifi County leaders have made a passionate appeal to the national government to pay squatters and land owners to pave the way for expansion of the Malindi International Airport.
At the same time they called on the government to fulfil the pledge of opening the Ronald Ngala Utalii College in September as announced by Tourism Principal Secretary (PS) Julius Bitok.
Kilifi Senator Stewart Madzayo and Malindi MP Amina Mnyazi said the delayed expansion of the airport to accommodate large aircrafts and the delayed operationalizing of the Ronald Ngala Utalii College was hurting tourism business in the region.
“We want to be assured that whatever the government has announced will be a reality because we have waited for too long for the operationalization of the tourism college and by the PS for Tourism saying that the first intake will be in September, let it be so,” said Madzayo said.
The minority chief whip in the senate said the Malindi Airport land owners and squatters had the right to be paid before being relocated and that the government should resolve the matter quickly to enable investors to expand the runway.
“Those land owners and squatters should be paid quickly so that we can expand the airport to international standards,” he said.
The affected residents are demanding KSh. 2.5 billion as compensation after they were evicted in the first phase and the land fenced.
The matter has been before courts of law and the Land Acquisition Tribunal (LAT) that hears appeals from the National Land Commission (NLC).
In 2015, 230 residents were compensated KSh. 423 million for the structures on the land by KAA and were to be paid another KSh. 2.5 billion for the land acquisition after being evicted but the process has reportedly been delayed for over 15 years.
Mnyazi said that tourism was hurting in Malindi and the North Coast region as a result of delayed expansion.
Maureen Awuor, the General Manager of Ocean Beach Resort and Spa in Malindi who is also the Chairperson of Kenya Hotel keepers and Caterers association North Coast Region said in Malindi and Mambrui there are new tourism gems including the Kenyan Dubai which is becoming a major tourism attraction.
The KTB Chief Executive Officer (CEO) June Chepkemei said that currently Kenya has a record 8 million tourists including 5.2 million domestic tourists and 2.7 million are foreign.
“So, we welcome this engagement, we will continue to engage with the private sector as a government so that we have a more collaborative and better coordination of tourism between the government, private sector, the academia and the non- state actors,” she said.
