From Business Recorder

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta launched Friday a construction deal for the first berths in a proposed multi-billion dollar port, the day after ordering vast tracts of “stolen” land be repossessed. The planned $24 billion Lamu port project, due to be finished by 2030, is intended to serve much of east Africa, with oil pipelines to South Sudan and railways to Ethiopia and Uganda from the Indian Ocean coast.

But the area has been hit by a recent wave of deadly attacks, largely claimed by Somalia’s al Qaeda-linked Shebab militants but which Kenyatta has blamed on “local political networks.”

Kenyatta said the massacres had been fuelled by companies seizing land covering a vast coastal zone nearly the size of Luxembourg “under dubious and corrupt circumstances.”

The land, stretching over 800 square miles was taken by 22 companies between 2011 and 2012, he said, ordering it to be repossessed.

“This criminal conspiracy has dispossessed individuals and families living in this region of their land and opportunities for improving their well being,” Kenyatta added.

“It has also helped fuel the current insecurity being experienced in the region, and frustrated our efforts in building cohesion in the country.”

Read more at Business Recorder