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{
    "id": 1024854,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1024854/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 512,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Halake",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13184,
        "legal_name": "Abshiro Soka Halake",
        "slug": "abshiro-soka-halake"
    },
    "content": "colonial style of laws and disfranchisement of communities is happening, especially with land. Madam Deputy Speaker, all that anybody needs to do to take away from our communities, be it in Mombasa, Isiolo or Mandera, is to gazette. We are all for places of worship. In fact, if there is one place where people live in perfect harmony from any religion it is the coastal region. We would like our places of worship to have enough land. However, it is not right that community land is usually just acquired compulsorily without any consideration for the communities that have lived there for ages. All anybody needs to do is to gazette it and convert it either to public land or to private land. That is wrong. Madam Deputy Speaker, if that land was private, somebody would have had to buy it. Why is it that when it is community land, it is just taken away from them with no consideration? Even relocation of compulsory acquisition must follow a process. Why is it that when comes to communities, no process is followed? Madam Deputy Speaker, in the last two years alone, 50 forests have been gazetted to become public land and not a single compensation has been given to the communities that lived there. Why are we impoverishing our communities and taking away their land? If it was private land, somebody would have been paid for it. Madam Deputy Speaker, that speaks to the resources allocation issues and that discrimination is rife at the coast when it come land. Injustices are rife when it comes to land, not just at the coast part also in Northern Kenya. Where I come from, Isiolo, we had Legal Notice No.150 which was illegal which converted public land to army land, disease free zones and gave it to the Government without compensating people that have lived there for all their lives. Madam Deputy Speaker, I would like to stand with the people of Jomvu and to condemn any disfranchisement or any acquisition of land and impoverishment of the communities instead of sharing the resources equally and ensuring that the places of worship are there, but the communities that were there are also looked after. I would like to urge the Committee where I used to be - the Standing Committee on Land, Environment and Natural Resources - to deliver justice to this. I also appeal to the National Land Commission not to take the issue of community land lightly. It is a ticking time bomb. If it is not dealt with properly, it will plunge this country into a lot of chaos. I thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, and I support."
}