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{
    "id": 1076727,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1076727/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 472,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kitui South, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. (Ms.) Rachael Nyamai",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13374,
        "legal_name": "Richard Ken Chonga Kiti",
        "slug": "richard-ken-chonga-kiti"
    },
    "content": "in one region of the country, but in all regions. We have seen the Ministry making an effort towards that. However, the Committee noted that only Kshs49 million has been given for resettlement of the landless in the Financial Year 2021/2022, against 39,000 people. You see, Kshs49 million against 39,000 persons clearly shows that planning has not been done very well. I thank the Committee again because the Departmental Committee on Lands made a recommendation of additional funding and we got Kshs250 million, at least, making it about Kshs300 million. We are really grateful as a departmental committee that the Committee on Budget and Appropriations is able to take into consideration issues raised within the departmental committees. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, the Ministry of Lands and Physical Planning has an interesting pending Bill of Kshs7,000,245,228,954. What we noticed as interesting is that this had not been declared earlier when you look at the reports that we are bringing. It was explained to us that they had put together all the pending bills from different governments. We realised most of these bills are awards made in court cases. These are awards going back to the last three governments where ministries had been sued due to commission or omission or falsification of documents by our own officers. The Departmental Committee is very keen on this matter because we realise that our own lawyers are losing so many cases and also there is falsification of documents. The Departmental Committee on Lands would like the people responsible for falsification of documents to be held liable. We are talking of Kshs7.2 billion in pending bills which relate to matters in courts. These pending bills were not reflected in the previous financial years’ reports despite the cases dating back to 2005. The Committee cast doubt on the authenticity of these pending bills. With regard to oversight, we said that we would like the Ministry to ensure that they go through these pending bills before payments are made. As we look at the National Land Commission, it has been funded very lowly based on what they presented to the Committee and also to this House. We realised that most of the funding for the National Land Commission does not cater for development. This is very interesting because you realise that they can pay salaries and that is it. They have several projects that they have indicated they would like to have funded. The National Land Commission has not been allocated funds for development expenditure despite several presentations that have been made for development expenditure to the National Treasury including a proposal on vesting of land that has been acquired. We put so much effort. I remember the person who seconded this Motion, Hon. Makali Mulu, was talking about so many pieces of land that have been acquired compulsorily by the Government. The National Land Commission is supposed to ensure that vesting of this land is done. However, we have been unable to provide. The budget that they have been requesting for is Kshs600 million. It is important to note that the Commissioners at the National Land Commission are using vehicles bought in 2013, which is a matter of concern. Moreover, they are expected to work in the counties. They are unable to move in and out of these counties. As I talk about budget, I would like to thank the Ministry for what it has done. Thousands and thousands and actually millions of title deeds have been produced between 2017 and 2021. I would like to say that this is a great achievement by the Ministry and would like them to continue doing the same. Additionally, you realise that the Departmental Committee on Lands also reduced slightly the budget for titling and in concurrence with the Ministry. They clearly explained to the Budget and Appropriations Committee that this was done so that we can push money towards digitisation of titles, which as I said earlier is a big project we would like to see being funded. 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."
}