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{
    "id": 584622,
    "url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/584622/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 241,
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    "content": "Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, as you travel to Mombasa through Mariakani, you have seen walls around people’s compounds. Most of that land was community land. You will find that somebody bought the land fraudulently from one of the brothers in a family. We were told stories of how a wall is put round that land and somebody has to exit through a spot or be closed in. That is family land that, for one reason or another, has been taken by somebody else. We need to think about all these issues and try to find ways and means of bringing them to a stop, figuring out exactly how we will do that. We will not come out of poverty without addressing these specific land issues. When title deeds were being given and the Cabinet Secretary at the time was hon. Charity Ngilu, we wanted the issue consolidated at that particular moment. We wanted them to find out exactly what was meant to happen. We suffered a lot from the disconnect between the Ministry and the NLC. However, we should not look at it at a conflict level and leave it there. We should look at it in terms of what can be done to ensure the implementation of the agenda that Article 67 of the Constitution advocates for. I know we have started talking about community land and creating clarity about that in the Community Land Bill that we discussed in this House. However, it is very critical to generally have a very broad agenda. It cannot just be business as usual. It has to be something that we need to put up and handle once and for all. This should never come to pass as something that we just talked about and nothing happened. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, it was shocking when we had an ad hoc Committee on natural resources. One of the places that we visited was Kasigau in Taita-Taveta to look at mining that was taking place there. As we drove, we saw chunks and chunks of sisal land which is not owned by the indigenous people. Therefore, who are the silent owners of those parcels of land? We were even told a story of somebody who had been killed by members of the community. Something is going on about some people who move to specific communities to utilise and exploit natural resources, be it land, gold or anything else. At the end of the day, the indigenous people do not get anything. That creates a lot of problems, divisions and insecurity. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, it has been mentioned here by other contributors before me that the same situation is obtaining in Kwale. As you go to the beach, on the left side, you will find owners of big hotels and land who are not indigenous Digo. However, because the Mdigo is quiet and cannot bring that to the fore, he will decide to just get fish and call it a day. That person has been ignored and that land has not been adjudicated. The people are just living from day to day without clear ownership of land. It is not something that is difficult to do. We should be serious about it and get it out of the way. The Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC) Report has been mentioned by Sen. (Prof.) Anyang’-Nyong’o. It is in the public domain. That becomes the first reference point for this Bill. We should get information from that Report because that has gone into details. Maybe we just need to know why that Report has not been discussed. It has been in the National Assembly for a couple of years. It needs to come to the fore. We need to discuss it and find a way forward. We can also look at it in terms of industry, what people in the coast grow and how they go about it right through the kind of industry and farming they can do. In the Coast, we have been very rich in the production of cashewnuts, but in Kilifi, that industry has died. We are also rich in sugar cane growing; for example, 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."
}