Nairobi, September 29- More than 133 residents from Chandavai, Lamu County, have moved to court seeking to stop the planned launch of the Dangote East African Oil Refinery, citing land ownership and compensation concerns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The residents, led by Suleiman Ali and Kanywa Kamunde, filed a notice of motion at the Malindi Law Courts, arguing that their families have occupied, cultivated and developed the disputed land for generations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They say they support the refinery project but want the government to address their concerns through resettlement or compensation before the development proceeds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The residents have sued several government agencies and officials, including the Office of the President, Ministry of Defence, State Department for Lands, National Land Commission, LAPSSET Corridor Development Authority, Lamu County Government and Dangote Industries, alongside two contractors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to court documents, the residents claim that heavy machinery and bulldozers entered the disputed land in August 2024, resulting in the destruction of crops, trees and other property without prior notice or compensation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They further allege that construction and excavation activities linked to the project could destroy homes, family graves, trees and other structures that cannot easily be replaced through monetary compensation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The residents contend that the land constitutes community land and that their long-standing occupation gives them an interest in it despite some families lacking registered title deeds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They also claim that preparatory activities for the refinery began in July 2026 and that part of the disputed land was cleared in September ahead of the planned groundbreaking ceremony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The plaintiffs argue that the compulsory acquisition process must identify affected occupants, issue the required notices, conduct an inquiry and valuation, and provide compensation before possession of the land is taken.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They have asked the court to intervene, citing alleged violations of their constitutional rights to property, fair administrative action and access to information, as well as concerns over environmental compliance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Nairobi, September 29- More than 133 residents from Chandavai, Lamu County, have moved to court seeking to stop the planned launch of the Dangote East African Oil Refinery, citing land ownership and compensation concerns. The residents, led by Suleiman Ali and Kanywa Kamunde, filed a notice of motion at the Malindi Law Courts, arguing that their families have occupied, cultivated and developed the disputed land for generations. They say they support the refinery project but want the government to address their concerns through resettlement or compensation before the development proceeds. The residents have sued several government agencies and officials, including the Office of the President, Ministry of Defence, State Department for Lands, National Land Commission, LAPSSET Corridor Development Authority, Lamu County Government and Dangote Industries, alongside two contractors. According to court documents, the residents claim that heavy machinery and bulldozers entered the disputed land in August 2024, resulting in the destruction of crops, trees and other property without prior notice or compensation. They further allege that construction and excavation activities linked to the project could destroy homes, family graves, trees and other structures that cannot easily be replaced through monetary compensation. The residents contend that the land constitutes community land …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4284,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.moradiofm.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.moradiofm.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.moradiofm.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.moradiofm.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.moradiofm.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4283"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.moradiofm.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4283\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4285,"href":"https:\/\/news.moradiofm.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4283\/revisions\/4285"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.moradiofm.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.moradiofm.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.moradiofm.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.moradiofm.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}