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{
    "id": 1052207,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1052207/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 208,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mukurweini, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Antony Kiai",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13439,
        "legal_name": "Anthony Githiaka Kiai",
        "slug": "anthony-githiaka-kiai"
    },
    "content": "I want to congratulate my colleague for bringing this piece of legislation. I want to start by saying that it seeks to ensure that land that is given out whether by the Government or private individuals for usage as public utility, is ring-fenced or hedged against grabbing by those who have the appetite for land. When you look at Section 12 of the Bill, it states that any institution that is given public land, be it a school, ministry or any other institution, must be given a title deed. Also, when I read Section 31 of the Physical Planning Act, it talks about land buying companies. I want to believe that whenever a land buying company buys a piece of land, it is mandatory for the same to set aside land for public utilities. It is on the basis of this that the proposer came up with this piece of legislation to ensure that such land is also titled. The reason why we find our capital city in the mess that it is in today is because most of the public land had not been titled. What happened is that the same land that was set aside for public utilities like schools was grabbed by the so-called private developers. The essence of this is to put into disarray the land planning that was put in place to develop our towns and urban centres in an orderly way. You only need to look at places like Githurai that is represented by the proposer. You will see the kind of damage that has been done by grabbing of public utility land. I also looked at some of the sections and noted this Bill also speaks to environmental conservation. It states that the land allocated should not fall under riparian land, a forest, land that is prone to erosion or any other place that we would call a water catchment area. The reason why this section has been put up is to ensure that we do not put up buildings or institutions near riparian land. If you look at many towns in our country today, some of the buildings are put up near rivers or water catchment areas. This timely piece of legislation will ensure that water catchment areas, riparian land and such other land that may be sloppy or gazetted as a forest is not grabbed and converted into private use. I have in mind Karura Forest which, way back, was targeted by private developers until the late Wangari Maathai rose up, demanded and protected the same. Today, we enjoy that piece of serenity because of her efforts. If there was such a piece of legislation in place, that would not have happened. The same with Uhuru Park. We all know what happened. It had been earmarked for grabbing by the so-called private developers. While talking of the same issue, in my place Mukurweini, because of lack of titles for public land, some of the land that is meant for public utilities has been converted into private land. The same title deeds are used as collateral to secure loans that are not repaid and the end result is that the same public land is disposed of by banks to private individuals thereby denying the public a chance to enjoy the land that was set aside for public utilities. It is not only that. This piece of legislation comes with other benefits. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, you will agree with me that currently, because of devolution, many towns are sprouting up all over the country. You realise that most of these towns are not planned and because of their fast growth, public land is in danger of being converted into private land. The fact is that many Kenyans have been conned by people purporting to have converted public land into private land thereby attracting land buyers, little do they know that the 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."
}