Kenya dismisses rumours on LAPSSET land acquisition, says surveys will begin soon

Kenya’s government is seeking to deny rumours that it has already begun the process of land acquisition in Turkana County for the Lokichar-Lamu Crude Oil Pipeline (LLCOP) project, a component of the Lamu Port-South Sudan Ethiopia Transport Corridor (LAPSSET) initiative.

James Long’ole, the National Land Commission (NLC) co-ordinator for Turkana, took note last week of reports that government officials had already identified 516 landowners who would be affected by LLCOP. These reports are incorrect, and the number 516 refers to something else, he was quoted as saying by The Nation.

“There has been a widespread falsehood that ... we already have 516 landowners. The 516 is the number of co-ordinates within the three gazetted oilfields. Amosing has 180 co-ordinates, Twiga has 106 and Ngamia has 230,” he said, referring to three fields within the licence areas assigned to Tullow Oil (UK/Ireland). “The process of identifying project-affected persons [has] not yet commenced.”

Long’ole stated that the Kenyan government hoped to begin the land acquisition process in the first week of December. The first steps in the process will see NLC, the Ministry of Petroleum and Mining, the Ministry of Lands and other relevant state agencies sending technical teams to inspect and survey the proposed pipeline route, Long’ole noted.

He also stressed that Nairobi is committed to offering fair compensation to everyone who will be affected or displaced by the LLCOP project. “The survey team will identify the project-affected persons and the improvement on the land. Compensation will be directly paid to affected communities, while for the unregistered land, the benefits will go directly to the county government, according to the law, unless other negotiations emerge,” he said.

According to previous reports, LLCOP is slated to follow an 892-km route from Blocks 10BB and 13T, two oil-bearing licence areas in Kenya’s South Lokichar basin, to the Indian Ocean port of Lamu. The cost of building the conduit – which will have an initial throughput capacity of 60,000-80,000 barrels per day (bpd), rising later to 100,000 bpd or more – is expected to reach $1.5bn.