Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 1146109,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1146109/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 831,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Emurua Dikirr, KANU",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Kipyegon Ng’eno",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1453,
        "legal_name": "Johana Ngeno Kipyegon",
        "slug": "johana-ngeno-kipyegon"
    },
    "content": "Land leases are very emotive issues especially because they touch on land. Many of us live on land that is on lease; many of us work on land that is on lease. I know because I come from a county where there are many leases which are renewed sometime back, sometimes now and sometimes in the future. As we speak, there is an ongoing Motion in our county assembly touching on land leases and management of the Mara. Some people are pushing it down the throats of the county assembly Members to force them or buying them so that they can allow or sign a new lease of around 30 years. That is almost a lifetime lease. I remember in areas like Kericho where there is tea which was planted over 100 years ago by multinationals, the land is under lease for 99 years. When you look at the lease, the county governments of those areas such Kericho, Bomet or Nandi, you cannot believe. The lease goes for something like one shilling per acre per year. Even ourselves when we want to farm, we lease one acre at around Ksh10,000. How is it possible that somebody leased land for 99 years by only one shilling or Ksh10 per acre? These are useless leases which need to be removed. We are shocked that when the new Constitution was introduced in this country, the county governments were not allowed to cancel all the leases so that they can be renewed, where the tea estates or land that was leased by the colonial Government, under their own terms. The Constitution reduced the period of leasing from 999 years to 99 years and gave modes of renewing the leases which does not allow county governments to deal with it comprehensively as per the law. We need to look at the leases in this country. There are people occupying land while there are many landless Kenyans. Even in those counties, there are landless people yet somebody in Europe is sitting on over 10,000 hectares of land reaping billions of shillings which county governments do not earn anything from. Let us look at the land lease issue. I urge Members, especially the Departmental Committee on Lands, to relook at the land leases. Land is a very emotive issue. So many of us are landless; so many of us live on leased land yet there are thousands of acres which are rotting for nothing."
}