Deputy President William Ruto’s Weston Hotel is built on public land but will not be demolished the National Land Commission said.
In a decision causing a storm between the NLC and the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority, the commission recommended DP Ruto to pay for the 0.773ha plot opposite Wilson Airport at the current market rate. Last year it was valued at Sh300 million.
But KCAA, which is Kenya’s air travel regulator, insists the four-star hotel should be torn down because it is compromising safety.
The authority says buildings near the airport should not be higher than two storeys but Weston is a four storey building.
DP Ruto was accused of grabbing the land and also failed to secure necessary approvals from KCAA.
KCAA had wanted to build its headquaters in the grabbed land but was instead forced to build in Embakasi
KCAA Corporation secretary Cyril Wayong’o confirmed to media that NLC had recommended that it be compensated.
KCAA protested against the NLC decision, saying it will entrench impunity and revealed that the parastatal’s board of management will appeal the decision.
“It will mean going forward that somebody can just grab public land and allege that he or she is an innocent purchaser, and thereafter decide to compensate, which is wrong,” he said.
The NLC conclusion that the parcel is public land is likely to put Ruto on the spot following years of denial and statements that he acquired the property legally. this latest move will feed into propaganda mills making a killing out of the NLC decision.
In 2013, the High Court ordered Ruto to surrender a 100-acre farm in the Rift Valley and pay Sh5 million as compensation to the rightful owner, Adrian Muteshi.
During the Weston probe, Ruto’s lawyer Ahmednassir Abdullahi told NLC commissioners that the defunct Directorate of Civil Aviation had been given alternative land.
