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{
    "id": 584558,
    "url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/584558/?format=api",
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    "content": "Sometimes, they even do not have a title deed to that land. Therefore, the owner will go to the court for an order to evict 48 families. These are the historical injustices that we must address. We should ask ourselves: When this part of land was hived off, what was the original intention? Was it to resettle the landless and the squatters? If that was the reason, how come individuals who were commanders in the army, Ministers and Members of Parliament then allocated themselves the land? I want to tell those individuals that you cannot succeed by going to court. Let us sit down and negotiate to ensure that we have the interest of the country at heart. In this country, we have had situations where the national Government has degazetted parts of forests to create human settlement. The rationale was to provide residence to the landless, but it is powerful individuals who get the land. When we engaged ourselves to reclaim the forests, the first group to be affected is the hopeless Kenyans. The other groups who are powerful managed to get title deeds. In Nandi County, we now have evictees from Serengonik Forest displaced seven years ago. They are still living on road reserves even now. How can we talk about enhancing productivity and economic empowerment in our villages if we still have individuals who do not have a place to live in? These are the issues that we, as a country, must address. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, we are a pastoral community and also farmers, but we have individuals who went to Tanzania to look for pasture. When this country engaged in the land adjudication process, they were still in Tanzania. When they came back, their ancestral land had been allocated to other individuals. Therefore, they are landless. We, as a country, must sit down and provide a mechanism to address these issues. This Motion could not have come at a better time. We want to ask the NLC, we know they had challenges with the Ministry of Lands. However, they should not lose sight of the very important mandate given to them of developing the necessary legislation to address historical land injustices. I want to agree with Sen. Mutula Kilonzo Jnr. that before we get into the next election, we should have succeeded to enact a legislation that provides a framework. We may not succeed in the remaining two years to address all the issues, but we shall have started the process of enacting a legal framework. I can assure you that communities will be assured that we have already started the journey of addressing historical injustices. We will be assured of stability in our counties and the country as a whole. As we talk of issuance of title deeds, it would serve no good to issue a title deed to an individual on a parcel of land to which we still have disputes. We, as a country, should be prepared to know that we may never find solutions to all these issues. We should go ahead and address the areas that we can. Even apologies and appreciating that a community lost land in itself will provide an opportunity to heal the challenges. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I want to thank Sen. Mutula Kilonzo Jnr. and ask the Senate to take some of these challenges head on. If there is anything we want to be remembered for, it is providing legal frameworks to address the historical challenges that this country has had for a long time. Let us have the courage to deal with these issues. I hope that the NLC as they continue with their fight with the Ministry of Lands, that they The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}