A fresh audit on the Standard Guage Railway (SGR) has revealed Kenyans lost more than Sh4 billion in land compensation deals in the construction of the 472-kilometer train trail from Nairobi to Mombasa.
To add salt to injury the main actors at the center of the scam are employees of the Kenya Railways Corporation (KRC) and the National Land Commission (NLC) who are supposed to protect the country's interest.
Due to the urgency of the project's officers from both KRC and NLC bypassed important requirements and managed to siphon billions of shillings through dubious land compensation deals.
It is also reported that KRC did not have enough manpower to cater for the land compensation deals hence casuals at the corporation were tasked with the responsibility of processing payments.
“Because of pressure to hand over the site, accountability procedures became secondary,” auditors say in their report.
The audit report shows how fake compensation claims, double payments, overpayments, inflation of land values and payment of people whose land was never on the corridor was used to loot taxpayer’s money. So due to lack of proper oversight, it has also been revealed that KRC might have also bought land from itself.