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{
    "id": 1052218,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1052218/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 219,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kathiani, WDM-K",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Robert Mbui",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1750,
        "legal_name": "Robert Mbui",
        "slug": "robert-mbui"
    },
    "content": "do not even know how much we can talk about this matter because there is no one who legitimately claims to own any piece of land anywhere in this country if one does not have a title deed because a title deed is the only proof of land ownership by law. We have a lot of public utilities in this country. We represent people and the public have schools, dispensaries, health centres and hospitals. All these amenities fall on public land. Unfortunately, a lot of our public utilities and institutions are still operating without proper titles. In fact, I would like to thank His Excellency the President because from the time this Government was elected, he has actually issued a lot of title deeds. In the current situation, I think the Ministry of Education has insisted that all our schools must be titled. So, it is really an important Bill. The other big problem we have in this nation is the issue of land grabbing, which the Mover wants addressed. Apparently, a lot of public land in Ruiru Constituency has been grabbed. That is why the constituency does not have enough land for public schools. We have seen this trend continuing. In the last Parliament, we had a situation where children of Lang’ata Road Primary School were beaten up and tear-gassed to submission because someone wanted to grab the playing field of that school. This is a private developer who was grabbing the land so that he could expand his hotel and create parking space. It is such a shame. Land grabbing has created many millionaires and a lot of paupers in this country. So, it is something we cannot play around with. I appreciate the Member for bringing this Bill because we are now addressing the issue of titles, so that all our public utility land can have title deeds so that children of Lang’ata Road Primary School do not have to go through what they went through last year. Children in other parts of the country also do not have to go through the kind of beatings instigated by private developers trying to grab their school land. I also have a similar problem in my constituency. I have a school called Qalicha Secondary School built on land which is clearly private land. The land was set aside as public utility land long time ago, but there are people who are already claiming ownership. When we started doing construction of certain classes, somebody made a phone call and said: “You know that is my piece of land.” The Deputy County Commissioner, the area chief and assistant chief and all other Government officers are aware that the land does belong to the public. It is really a shame and it is something we need to deal with. The law requires that when you subdivide any land, you set aside a small portion for purposes of public utilities. I think that is where the problem is. I have also noted another problem. Sometimes people who are supposed to surrender some portion of land corrupt the local authority leaders. They pay money instead of surrendering pieces of land. At the end of the day, you end up with situations where we do not have public utility land. That is why you find that there are areas where we cannot even put up schools because all that land was never subdivided. Instead of the subdivision and the surrender being done, somebody took some money corruptly and therefore they end up not creating that space. Unfortunately, again, if it is not well protected, as the Members wishes us to do, by ensuring there is a title issued, it gets grabbed. So, it is really a major problem."
}