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{
    "id": 1112095,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1112095/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 31,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Lungalunga, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Khatib Mwashetani",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2163,
        "legal_name": "Khatib Abdallah Mwashetani",
        "slug": "khatib-abdallah-mwashetani"
    },
    "content": "That Wasini Island, which is also known as Wasini Mkwiru Island, is located near Shimoni town in the Coastal Region and covers approximately 289 acres of land registered as Provincial Plot No. PW 33/Wasini Island, that sustains a community of over 300 families. That, on 31st October 1979, the then Kwale District Lands Adjudication Office declared Wasini Island an adjudication area pursuant to Section 5 of the Land Adjudication Act, which implied that all rights and interests within the adjudication section were to be strictly observed as required by law. That the Island was thereafter surveyed and adjudicated by the Ministry of Lands through the Kwale District Lands Adjudication Office, which proceeded to issue the title deeds thereof. That years later in 1995, one Hassan Nassir, Mohamed Nassir and Ahmed Nassir who had approximately five acres of land to their names, challenged the adjudication process in court by suing one Mohamed Masoud and Hamadi Khalfan, and later included the Attorney-General as part of the defendants. That in a bid to secure the land from being grabbed before development of the Trust Land Policy, the community had entrusted the land under Mr. Alawi Saggaf, who was a relative to the three plaintiffs, to hold it in trust pending its adjudication, after which each family would receive its specified portion of land as verbally agreed during title deeds issuance. That in July 1995, a High Court order was issued and communicated through the Chief Lands Registrar to invalidate title deeds issued in the Kwale/Wasini registration section, with the Chief Land Registrar querying the enforcement of an order whose case had involved only 3 people out of the over 80 title deed holders. That as peasant fishermen struggling to make a living, the poor families were unable to hire lawyers against the ruling that declared all title deeds null and void, and which further called for a new adjudication exercise to be conducted, but which has never been effected to date. That the Chief Registrar has since then never made any communication regarding any surrender of title deeds, and hence the title deeds invalidity stalemate has continued since then. That efforts by Wasini Island residents to address this matter with relevant authorities have borne no fruit. That the issues in respect of which the Petition is made are not pending before any court of law, or other constitutional or legal body. Therefore, your humble Petitioners pray that the National Assembly, through the Departmental Committee on Lands:- (i) intervenes to either secure the undertaking of a new adjudication process or to secure the declaration that all title deeds as initially issued remain valid and legal. (ii) intervenes to protect Wasini Island, which is an ancestral land to local communities, from being grabbed or illegally dispossessed from them on account of the ongoing construction of Shimoni Port. (iii) Cause the Ministry of Lands and Physical Planning to explain why it sent over 100 armed police officers to oversee an illegal and irregular surveying of land without following the due processes and without meeting numerous legal requirements. (iv) Make any other recommendation it deems appropriate in the circumstances of the petition. Thank you, Hon. Speaker."
}