[Source: Daily Nation, by George Sayagie and Victor Raballa]
The news that the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) will not immediately go past Naivasha to Kisumu has hit hard a number of speculators who had bought property worth billions of shillings along the route eyeing compensation from the government.
A wave of excitement had been spreading in areas where the line was expected to cross on its way to Kisumu after completion of the Nairobi-Naivasha phase expected in August, with land prices steadily shooting up.
The uncertainty over the building of SGR will also be a big blow to strategic businesses that had planned with the Narok-Bomet -Kisumu route after Transport Cabinet Secretary James Macharia on Friday announced Sh40 billion would be spent to rehabilitate the Metre Gauge Railway instead.
It is not clear how long the SGR project will take to resume — if at all, given the huge investment in rehabilitating the old line — but most of those who bought land along the route had anticipated quick returns. On Saturday, State House indicated there were no loan negotiations in Beijing but did say when these would continue.
In the ongoing Nairobi-Naivasha phase of the construction, the amount given out in way leave compensation was at least Sh10.2 billion, giving huge expectations to land buyers and residents on the Naivasha-Kisumu stretch.
One of the targeted areas is Bomet. In February 2018, a contingent of government officials travelled from Nairobi to Bomet to inform Governor Joyce Laboso and residents that a substation of the SGR would be constructed near the county headquarters.
[Full article: Daily Nation, by George Sayagie and Victor Raballa]
