Safaricom houses along Waiyaki way to be demolished in 6 months. "Sufferingcom"

New Safaricom house 2 be demolished in 6 moths time

By Dan Muhuni

Safaricom Limited are among several companies whose multi-million shilling buildings have been earmarked for demolition under a compulsory acquisition programe by the government.The government has announced intentions to acquire land where Safaricom's two sites on Waiyaki Way stand for purposes of a road expansion project.

A safaricom employee who seekd anonymity  told us on phone that Safaricom is bn targetted. We are vey sure that Airtel is part of this since they have had  internal secret meetings and agreed to use all means possible to finish Safricom.  “Inside source from Airtel tells us that even the president is aware of this since Airtel had a closed door meeting with the president and the prime minister just days after they arrived in Kenya” Said he: Tunaomba serikali ingiililie kati na kutupa suruhisho la kudumu. Hahahhahaha  

In a Gazette Notice dated December 31, the Ministry of Lands announced it would acquire various parcels of land of varying sizes on both sides of Mombasa Road and Waiyaki Way.

The government said it intends to acquire the land in order to expand the road between the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport through to Museum Hill and Gigiri.

In a quick rejoinder, Safaricom Limited's CEO Bob Collymore said the company does not own the buildings they operate from and would be negotiating with their landlords to get a practical solution.

"Safaricom is not in the business of brick and mortar and as such, we do not own any of the sites from which we operate," Mr Collymore said in a statement.

"We are in touch with our landlords and the authorities with a view to working out a practical resolution."

The two buildings on which Safaricom operates from are not built on a road reserve but the government has indicated it will be invoking the section of the law that deals with compulsory acquisition to use it for a road expansion project.

Under such arrangement, the government compensates legitimate owners of the land as per the current market value of their property.

The statement said a consultative meeting of key stakeholders convened on Tuesday had resolved that "such action is arbitrary, autocratic and smirks of an attitude of a Government that does not care about private investments."

"The stakeholders expressed shock and disbelief that a democratic government can adopt a high-handed approach of unilaterally announcing an intended compulsory acquisition without due regard to a consultation process," the statement sent to newsrooms said.

They said that the parcels of land in question constitute private, legally acquired assets and not any land earmarked as road reserve - a fact verifiable by the absence of a caveat in Ministry of Lands records.
SAFARICOM opinioned: "Those charged with the responsibility of design and development of the country's road master plan have failed in their duty, care and professionalism to plan for workable solutions consistent with best international practices and have elected a draconian option that amounts to destruction of tens of billions of shillings worth of investment and loss of thousands of jobs."

Safaricom believes that their businesses are being targeted because "It is apparent from the road design that the routing could have been influenced by other factors that amount to a conspiracy to target specific businesses as evidenced by the inconsistency in the width of expansion and where the road begins, besides lack of transparency in the project design."

Safaricom seems not to be lucky this time round after the massive customer exodus to the cheeper n more clear Airtel
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