Dubious City Cabanas Compensation Exposes Sh1.93 Billion Expressway Land Fraud

A Nairobi businessman is blowing the lid off a major scandal that exposes the misuse of public funds in the name of development. Simion Nyamanya Ondiba has taken the National Land Commission (NLC) and Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA) to court over a shocking payout of Sh1.93 billion to Rosaline Njeri Macharia — the woman claimed to own the land where City Cabanas hotel sits. The compensation was supposedly for land taken up by the Nairobi Expressway. But Ondiba says there’s one big problem — the road never touched that land. If true, this case could be one of Kenya’s most blatant cases of fraudulent compensation in recent years. If Sh1.93 billion can be paid for land that was never used, how many other fake compensations are hidden in government records? And how many honest landowners have been sidelined because of corrupt deals? [Photo: Courtesy] A Billion-Shilling Payout for Land the Expressway Never Touched According to court documents, the NLC and KeNHA paid Sh1.93 billion to Ms Macharia in 2021 as compensation for a parcel of land allegedly acquired for the construction of the 27-kilometre Nairobi Expressway.

The money came from public coffers and was intended to reimburse landowners affected by the road project. But businessman Simion Ondiba, who claims to be the rightful owner of the land in question, says the expressway never crossed the plot registered as LR. No. 209/11293/1.

Mr. Ondiba has now filed a case in the Environment and Land Court demanding that the massive payout be recovered and returned to the national treasury. He says the entire process was fraudulent, unconstitutional, and a gross abuse of power by NLC and KeNHA .

The land, he insists, was never touched by the expressway, and therefore there was no legal basis for the compulsory acquisition or compensation.

What’s even more alarming is that the compensation was made under an outdated land reference number — one that Mr Ondiba says had already been overtaken by events. He has accused the government bodies involved of using obsolete records to justify an unjustifiable transaction.

According to Ondiba, the land’s actual use and position were misrepresented, resulting in a false compensation claim that deprived Kenyan taxpayers of nearly two billion shillings. Missing Records and Frustrated Inquiries In his legal filings, Mr. Ondiba, through his lawyer Harry Arunda, says he has made several attempts to get clarity on the transaction. All of them have hit a dead end.

He claims that both the NLC and KeNHA have failed to provide any documentation proving that Ms Macharia’s land was ever affected by the expressway project.

He now wants the court to compel the two institutions to produce all records relating to the land acquisition, including survey maps, valuation reports, gazette notices, and internal correspondence that led to the payout.

Ondiba is also asking the court to order a full audit of how the land parcel LR. No. 209/11293/1 — or its outdated variant 209/11293 — was used to channel public funds to an individual.

In his view, this was not just a clerical mistake or a bureaucratic error. It was a deliberate scheme to siphon money under the guise of infrastructure development.

He adds that the “tentacles and fangs” of the NLC and KeNHA have made it impossible for him to develop or sell the property in question. Despite having legal ownership, his hands are tied because the land is now surrounded by legal and administrative confusion stemming from the wrongful compensation.

Ondiba fears that unless this issue is resolved, more such fraudulent compensations may continue under Kenya’s infrastructure boom. State Agencies Under Scrutiny Over Dubious City Cabanas Hotel Land Compensation The case raises serious questions about the integrity of the government agencies handling land and road projects in Kenya. The NLC, which is mandated to manage public land and oversee compensation for compulsory acquisition, has previously been accused of corruption and poor record keeping.

KeNHA, on the other hand, is responsible for the construction and maintenance of highways, including land acquisition for road expansion.

In this particular case, both bodies are accused of enabling a suspicious payout that lacks any clear legal basis. If the claims by Mr. Ondiba hold, then NLC and KeNHA could be complicit in a multi-billion shilling scam that benefitted a private individual at the expense of taxpayers.

What remains unclear is why Ms Macharia received the compensation and on what basis her claim was validated.

No public hearing was held. No notice was given to the alleged actual owner. And no explanation has been offered about how such a large sum could be paid out without proper due diligence.