Kenya said it will pay 4.4 billion shillings ($45 million) to acquire land for its standard gauge railway network, an ambitious infrastructure project aimed at boosting trade and cutting transport costs across eastern Africa. The $13.8 billion rail project, which began last December, will eventually link Kenya's Indian Ocean port of Mombasa to the capital Nairobi, then on to Uganda. It is part of a package of deals signed between Kenya and China in 2013. Muhammad Swazuri, who heads Kenya's National Land Commission and is overseeing the compensation, said up to 1500 local land owners with land along the railway path would receive compensation to vacate their properties. "We are keen to ensure that what is offered as compensation is just and fair, so that this project can go on uninterrupted," Swazuri told Reuters in Mombasa, where he was meeting with locals to explain how the process will unfold. Not everyone is satisfied. On Tuesday, some land owners held protests to say they were being offered too little, a move that might frustrate the already ongoing project. "They are offering me only 28,000 shillings ($288.51) for my two-room house, which they will demolish. How do I build another one elsewhere with that little cash?" Peter Ashimosi, one of the protesters, told Reuters. The existing metre gauge railway was built by the British at the turn of the previous century. Years of mismanagement in Kenya and Uganda have meant their governments neglected proper maintenance of tracks and trains on the existing line. As a result, much of the freight destined for Kenya's interior and landlocked neighbours is moved by road. Officials say the new line will ferry heavier and bigger containers more quickly and will relieve pressure on the region's roads, which have been damaged by the amount of traffic.