Ketraco power line land grabbed by squatters in Nyanza

Energy Principal Secretary Alex Wachira told the committee that there are more structures coming up along the powerline wayleaves.

“Recently, one of the PAPs (Project Affected Persons) among those who have put up new building structures within the corridor took the Kenya Electricity Transmission Company (Ketraco) to Epra demanding to be paid for the illegal structures,” Mr Wachira said in submissions to the committee.

“However, in a ruling issued on July 17, 2025, Epra directed that the PAP should demolish newly introduced structures. Ideally, all these new structures should be removed from the wayleave corridor at the owners’ expense.”

The PAP had sued Ketraco over the compulsory acquisition of 0.3482 acres of land that was required for the construction of a transmission line, an acquisition anchored by the National Land Commission through Gazette Notice issued on September 22, 2017, with Ketraco seeking to secure a 30-meter wayleave.

The National Land Commission (NLC) has offered to compensate the PAP Sh350,000 for the portion of land, but the PAP claimed he had constructed structures valued at Sh1.179 million.

However, Ketraco lawyers countered the claim, arguing the structures on the land were allegedly constructed after the official cut-off date of September 2017 as gazette by the NLC.

“The authority (Epra) has considered the plaintiff’s and respondent’s case and based on the facts and evidence presented and investigations made, the respondent (Ketraco) has demonstrated that proper valuation was conducted, with compensation offered in line with the Land Act, No 6 of 2012,” Daniel Kiptoo, the Epra director-general said in a ruling dated July, 17, 2025.

“The plaintiff’s claim of an alternative agreed compensation amount of Sh1.179 million was not substantiated by documentary evidence or formal agreement executed by the parties therefore fails.”

Mr Kiptoo directed the plaintiff to remove the structures on the wayleave trace to pave way for electrification.

Documents tabled before the committee shows that a special team sent to the line to pick all illegal structures along the line’s wayleave corridor shows that 118 squatters had invaded the entire powerline from Sondu to Ndhiwa in Homa Bay as of July 25, 2025.      

Auditor General Nancy Gathungu had questioned the status of the Sondu-Ndhiwa 132kv line wayleave, which had seen newly introduced buildings along the wayleave corridor.

According to Mr Wachira brief to the committee, the resettlement action plan for the line was done in October 2014 and validated in 2015/16.

“This marked the official cut-off date for the project beyond which new developments, land subdivisions and new building structures are not allowed within the corridor,” Mr Wachira said.

He said the NLC gazetted the wayleave corridor on September 22, 2017 after the regulations to the Land Act became effective.

The PS said there have been two contractors working on the line since inception, with a period in between when there was no construction work going on.

He said in the course of the year 2024, the ministry noticed some new structures along the corridor and issued notices to their owners through the area chiefs.

Mr Wachira said during the final engineering inspections in June 2025, more structures were found to have been put up along the corridor.

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