Land has been lying idle 32 years ago and has been costing the country Rwf42 million in tax annually
According to senators, the acquired land would have been used as warehouses for commodities meant or petroleum storage for Rwanda’s imports and exports, but three decades ago, it yet to be developed and has been subjected to court disputes.
Failure to develop the land by government of Rwanda has seen land grabbers taking the opportunity and establishing their own illegal commercial activities, which prompted legal suits between Rwanda government and Kenyan investors.
Senators have raise red flag over possible grabbing of Rwanda acquired land in Mombasa (Kenya’s coast city) by some investors after it has been lying idle 32 years ago and has been costing the country Rwf42 million in tax every year.
Back in 1986, Rwanda acquired 12,8 hectares in Mombasa county, the first ever foreign seacoast land the country was given in a bid to have quick access to Indian ocean and promote maritime trade and access to other strategic port zones.
According to senators, the acquired land would have been used as warehouses for commodities meant or petroleum storage for Rwanda’s imports and exports, but three decades ago, it yet to be developed and has been subjected to court disputes.
Failure to develop the land by government of Rwanda has seen land grabbers taking the opportunity and establishing their own illegal commercial activities, which prompted legal suits between Rwanda government and Kenyan investors.
Presenting a report on land that remain unutilized yet acquired by the Rwandan government on Monday afternoon, senators expressed serious concerns that Rwanda might lose it completely or will have to pay heavily to maintain its title deed.
Specifically, Senator Michael Rugema, chairman of a senatorial committee in charge of foreign affairs, cooperation and security that scrutinized Rwanda’s foreign land statusquo, talked of a certain Awale Salad, a Kenyan investor who had openly taken the land and had setup a factory in his own interest.
“In 2012, Rwanda’s embassy in Kenya requested Mombasa County Authorities to expel all land grabbers who had illegally settled there, but Mr. Awale Salad remained adamant and instead decided to file a legal case against the Kenyan county,” he explained.
Although the land grabber did lose the case during the 2016, a court decision taken by Mombasa commercial high court, Awale later asked for revision of the case, claiming he had obtained new evidences and that both government were working on modalities of giving Rwanda new acreage of land to replace the contested land.
“Apparently the ministry of trade in Rwanda had entered into discussions with the Kenyan National land on prospects of acquiring new plot of land, but despite negotiations the ministry was yet to append its signature to the surrender act,” Rugema further explained.
The land which is registered on Rwanda’s embassy in Kenya and under the oversight of Ministry of Trade, Ministry of infrastructure, Rwanda Development Board and Ministry of Foreign affairs have been footing an annual tax bill of Ksh5million (Rwf42million) to the Kenyan Government.
Hefty sum
Reacting on the report senators further questioned the ownership of the land arguing that if the ministry had entered into negotiations with Kenya National Land, there were possibilities of losing the land title or paying hefty sum of money to recover the land that was once belonged to them.
“There is a lot of contradicting issues on this particular land, It sounds like we don’t own the land anymore, I think there is a need to find out the current statusquo of the land and the whole issue is because we have failed to develop the land as early as possible;
“If the country has failed to get investors in the earliest time possible, why can’t we mobilize members of our own private sector and takeover the land and establish businesses there, instead of keeping it there lying idle yet costly for us,” argued Senator Narcisse Musabeyezu.
Senators on the other hand called on the government to table a conclusive report, in the next six months on the roadmap of utilization of the land, showing exactly the number of investors mobilized, number of ongoing projects and amount of money expected to be invested.
Just like 12,8 hectares of land in Mombasa, the government is also yet to exploit 60 hectares of land (dating since 2007) acquired through reciprocity agreement with the government of Djibouti and 17,5 hectares acquired back 1987 on inland dry-port of Isaka in Tanzania.
While officials from the ministry of Trade were not available for comments, appearing before the parliament last month, Vincent Munyeshyaka, Rwanda’s trade minister told lawmakers that government had already engaged three developers to take on the Djibouti land for possible development as the two parties were finalizing on terms of references.
The inland port in Isaka, according to senators, is expected to help Rwanda connect itself on the anticipated 494km construction of a regional Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) which will go through the central corridor before it reaches Kigali and possibly connect to Bujumbura.