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"id": 1401851,
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Kilifi North, UDA",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Owen Baya",
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"content": " Thank you very much, Hon. Temporary Speaker. I beg to move that the National Land Commission (Amendment) Bill, (National Assembly Bill No. 43 of 2023), be now read a Second Time. This Bill seeks to amend the National Land Commission Act No. 5 of 2012 to confer back to the NLC the power to continue reviewing all grants or dispositions of public land to establish their propriety or legality since Section 14 of the Act has lapsed. The Bill further seeks to allow the NLC to continue admitting and processing historical land injustice claims since the Act provides that a historical land claim may only be admitted, registered, and processed by the NCL, if it is brought within five years from the date of the commencement of the Act. In 2010, when we were establishing the new Constitution, many people voted because many historical land injustices were going to be tackled by this law. Before the 2010 Constitution, many commissions, such as the Ndung'u Commission and many others, investigated the issues bedevilling land in this country. It was established that there were many historical land injustices in the Coast Region, in the Rift Valley, in Central Kenya, and across the country. The conclusion was that we needed an institution that would handle those historical land injustices in the country. Therefore, the NLC was born and mandated under Article 67 to interrogate, establish, and tackle land issues. This would give people a reprieve. However, the National Lands Commission Act came in and limited the constitutional operations by putting a time limit and yet, the Constitution did not put a time limit. A statute of this House, under the National Lands Commission Bill, was prepared, and a time limit was placed on the handling of historical land injustices and the review of grants. A court in this country ruled that this Section was unconstitutional. Today, we have an opportunity to right that wrong."
},
{
"id": 1401852,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1401852/?format=api",
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"speaker": null,
"content": "[The Temporary Speaker (Hon. Peter Kaluma) left the Chair]"
},
{
"id": 1401853,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1401853/?format=api",
"text_counter": 626,
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"speaker_name": "",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "[The Temporary Speaker (Hon. Martha Wangari) took the Chair]"
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{
"id": 1401854,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1401854/?format=api",
"text_counter": 627,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Kilifi North, UDA",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Owen Baya",
"speaker": null,
"content": "Section 14 (1) of the National Land Commission Act says: (1) Subject to Article 68 (c)(v) of the Constitution, the Commission shall, within five years of the commencement of this Act, on its own motion or upon a complaint by the national or a county government, a community or The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor"
},
{
"id": 1401855,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1401855/?format=api",
"text_counter": 628,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Kilifi North, UDA",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Owen Baya",
"speaker": null,
"content": "an individual, review all grants or dispositions of public land to establish their propriety or legality. The amendment seeks to delete the words “within five years”. This time restriction has killed the NLC, as it is not constitutionally required. Many people residing at the Coast have lost hope because of this limitation. My amendment proposes a deletion of the time limit so that the NLC can receive, handle and determine as many cases as possible. Hon. Temporary Speaker, the Bill further proposes to amend Section 14 (9) of the NLC Act by deleting which provides that the Commission may, where it considers it necessary, petition Parliament to extend the period for undertaking the review specified in sub-section (1). When the law lapsed, no institution came to this House to request for an extension. By deleting the words “within five years” subsequently, we must also delete Section 14 (9) of that law. Currently, the Commission receives a budget from this National Assembly. It has offices, but its work is impeded from addressing any complaints dealing with public land and providing redress even when there are evident and apparent cases of illegality in the disposition of public land because of time limitations. As we speak, NLC is a lame duck. It is a dog that cannot bite. It is an institution that does not help. There are so many cases that we have received, especially from the Coast, of public land that was stolen. The reason why there are so many squatters for whom this Government allocates a lot of money to buy land that should not have been bought is because we have killed the NLC. There is an array of hope for the many squatters that have been waiting for justice for many years. I invite Members of this House to seize this opportunity and liberate land at the Coast and allow all the squatters to find solace in this Parliament so that, for once, they will own land, develop, and have an opportunity to be like other Kenyans. Section 15(3A)(e) of the principal Act provides that a historical land claim may only be admitted, registered and processed by the Commission, if it is brought within five years of the commencement of this Act. This provision is hereby deleted by this Bill. I invite Members to join me in deleting this very oppressive part of the law so that we can give Kenyans an opportunity. Many people will say I am moving this Bill because of the people at the Coast. There are people in the Rift Valley, especially in Kericho, who are suffering because of this part. They want to petition NLC to get help, but they cannot because of this unconstitutional provision. This Bill further proposes to amend Section 15 of the NLC Act by deleting sub-section 11, which provides that the provisions of the section shall stand repealed within 10 years. This amendment will allow the Commission to continuously admit, register and process historical injustice claims, and handle disputes that have not been brought up within the limitation period uninterruptedly. I must say this in the House: There are many people out there who are afraid and peddling lies that my amendments will make NLC investigate private land. I want to put it on record in this House that: All that is private land was once public land. How it transitioned from public to private is what we want to know. Just that. Why are people so afraid? Why would you be afraid of this amendment? Historical land injustice hearings have been there, but they have not done any harm to anyone. The NLC has been hearing such cases, and no one has been targeted. Today, we bring this amendment, and people say we are targeting them. We are not targeting anyone. We want squatters in this country to have an opportunity to own land. People with historical claims, such as those who went to the Njonjo Commission or the Ndung'u Commission or other commissions, will have a reprieve and take their claims to NLC. They will be heard and a determination made. If you did not steal any public land, you will have your land. But if you stole public land and it had people on it, please give it up because it belongs to those people. Amendments to Section 15…"
},
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"id": 1401856,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1401856/?format=api",
"text_counter": 629,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Kilifi North, UDA",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Owen Baya",
"speaker": null,
"content": "The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor"
},
{
"id": 1401857,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1401857/?format=api",
"text_counter": 630,
"type": "scene",
"speaker_name": "",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "(Technical hitch)"
},
{
"id": 1401858,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1401858/?format=api",
"text_counter": 631,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Hon. Martha Wangari",
"speaker_title": "The Temporary Speaker",
"speaker": {
"id": 13123,
"legal_name": "Martha Wangari",
"slug": "martha-wangari"
},
"content": " Hold on. We have a problem with technology."
},
{
"id": 1401859,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1401859/?format=api",
"text_counter": 632,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Kilifi North, UDA",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Owen Baya",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Hon. Temporary Speaker, sorry. You know Hon. Kamket is my friend and so, I can say a few things to him. All the amendments that we want to make will bring significant changes as they will transform the review of the Commission from a bound, time-limited endeavour into an open- minded, ongoing activity. There are many cases that are relating to grants. The judicial system in this country is very expensive for peasants in the Coast and in many other places. They cannot afford to hire a lawyer to defend a case in court. They do not have that luxury. The NLC was actually formed as a quasi-judicial commission to give poor people an opportunity to be heard. If people claim that a poor person's land at the Coast or any other region is theirs, the poor person cannot get justice at the courts. The NLC gives people, both the rich and the poor, an opportunity to be heard. For us to kill NLC using a statute of the House and yet the Constitution gave people an opportunity to be heard is to be unjust to this country and to the"
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"text_counter": 633,
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"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "hoi polloi"
}
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