For the first time in 18 years, Malindi has seen a deployment of forces led by a Permanent Secretary and some other senior secretaries of the Government, with the entire National Development Implementation Technical Committee (NDITC), i.e. the compartment that can provide the final permissions to proceed, including compensation for the inhabitants whose properties will be expropriated.
All this happened last Tuesday, January 11, near the Malindi International Airport which, according to the committee, has the final permits to proceed with the lengthening and widening of the runway.
By now, for Kilifi County residents and tourism operators, it's a bit like the fable of the shepherd who cried "wolf!". Few still believe that the long awaited adaptation of the Malindsian airport to accommodate international flights can really take effect.
This time, however, the deployment of forces comes directly from Nairobi and it is no coincidence that it happens at the same time as the beginning of the electoral campaign.
In a nutshell, the compensation (as much as 5 billion shillings) should take place by next July. The Deputy Minister of Health Susan Mochache, who is involved in the committee because one of the requirements for the expansion of the airport is health safety, as well as the environmental impact, the road system (already unlocked) and precisely the social implications for those who will be forced to find a new home, said that the State "has set aside 5 billion dollars that will be used to acquire the land for the expansion. This is the amount that residents' associations had asked for as a minimum reimbursement to accept the proposal without recourse.
In the meantime, however, time has passed and some members of the associations are beginning to ask for an adjustment based on inflation rates and real estate market growth.
The areas concern the villages of Majivuni, Kalimani Poa, Ziwani, Bondeni, Furunzi and Mtangani.
The families that will be affected by the government expropriation of this second phase of expansion are about 1800.
Meanwhile, Deputy Minister Mochache called on residents to stop any development plan assuring that the government is about to start the compensation process.
Airport Director Mohamed Karama on the other hand announced to national newspaper The Standard that everything is ready for the runway extension works and that he is just waiting for directions from the Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) headquarters for implementation.
"We are waiting for the government to release the money and as soon as that is done, we will move on to the next step of compensating the residents so that they can start a new life elsewhere," he said. Could this be the charm or is this yet another "wolf out" from the good Kenyan pastor?

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)