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{
    "id": 1009569,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1009569/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 266,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Ruiru, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Simon King’ara",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13468,
        "legal_name": "Simon Nganga Kingara",
        "slug": "simon-nganga-kingara-2"
    },
    "content": " Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, as I continue, the Government has an obligation to secure the land for public use. However, if that land is not secured with a document, that will be in vain. If you look at what is happening today, the Kenyan law allows the Government to exercise power to get land from private owners through acquisition. Unfortunately, if land is acquired by the Government, then the same land is not locked and the Government takes too long to do the intended project, eventually the same land will be grabbed. You will find that the same Government now goes back and maybe repossesses and buys the same land. I will give an example with what happened with the Ruaraka School land. If you look at the history, you will find that the Government had acquired that land long ago. Even if the school was constructed, the same land was not locked. So, far much later, other people came and produced documents and demanded the Government to pay for the same land it had acquired. That notwithstanding, I will take another scenario of Mwihoko Primary School in Ruiru, where I come from. In 1970s, the land was measuring 74 acres, but now as I stand as the area Member of Parliament, the same land measures 24 acres – and remember it is not yet locked. Imagine what will happen tomorrow. However, if the same land was locked at the beginning, you will find that we will secure enough land for public utilities. I want to quote the Handbook for Public School Land Defender done by the National Assembly 2020: Shule Yangu Alliance Campaign . In this legitimate document that was done in November 2019, it recorded that 32, 354 operating public schools are set. Unfortunately, only 30 per cent of the same schools have land documents or title deeds. The same book records that 4,100 schools have formally reported being at risk of being grabbed; you can imagine what we are talking about. How many pupils are accommodated by these pieces of land? It does not augur well to our economy. fI will cite a scenario when there were demolitions in Ruai and Kariobangi, where 1, 500 and 5,000 people respectively were left homeless the other day. This was public land and someone sold it to them unknowingly. Now, the Government wants to develop the same land and now they have to lose it. The list is long. You can remember what happened to the Nakumatt building in Ukay Centre which was on riparian land where over Ksh125 million was lost. If that land had been secured from the first day, the loss would not have been experienced by these people."
}