Nairobi News

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City Hall makes U-turn on cemetery land in ‘weird’ ad


Nairobi County government has made a U-turn and claimed ownership of a piece of land in Nairobi that had been advertised in the a local daily saying it was public land whose ownership had changed illegally.

An advertisement in the Daily Nation stated that the owner wanted to “change its use from cemetery to residential multi-dwelling (apartments) subject to the approval of City County”.

Ironically, the newspaper ad, a picture of which has been shared widely on social media, was signed off by Nairobi County Secretary.

Many Kenyans claimed that the county was out to legitimize land grabbing.

The 'weird' ad.
The ‘weird’ ad.

But in a strange twist, Land County executive Christopher Khaemba now says that the plot (L.R no.209/6505/2), off Mbagathi Way, was set aside for cemetery among other plots in the area, but had been grabbed over the years.

“A cemetery cannot be converted to another use. We are short of land to bury our people. We are agreed with the Governor that the land must remain as cemetery land though I am told it was allocated to some private developer,”said Mr Khaemba.

Mr Khaemba said that the land was County land and therefore public land set aside for the purpose of a cemetery.

“I have asked for details of who allocated it and to which developer and when the same was done,” he said

Nairobi County assembly Speaker Alex ole Magelo said that the piece of land was set aside for a cemetery during the city council era but it had been grabbed and development put up.

However, Mr Magelo said he could not remember the exact acreage but the land was “massive”.