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{
    "id": 117798,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/117798/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 516,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
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    "speaker": null,
    "content": "of the day, we are here to represent Kenyans. Statistics show that in this country, 10 per cent of Kenyans manage or own 80 per cent of the country’s resources. It is untenable and that is why we have the crises of untold proportions in this country. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, if I were to draw a problem tree of this country, I would put land right at the centre of it. The reason I would do so is that if you look at the issue of IDPs and listen to the Parliamentary debates, you will realize that there is a Question on IDPs every week whether they are those of 1992, 1997 or 2007. We will never get rid of the issue of IDPs unless we address the land question. At the end of the day it is about land. If you look at the issues of Mungiki ; insecurity, squatters and poverty, it is all about the land question. So, unless we put the land issue at the heart of all issues we are dealing with, we can never progress as a country. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would like to laud this Policy especially because of the principles and values that it espouses especially on intra and intergenerational equity. It realizes and acknowledges that this country has young people who have a stake in the ownership of this country. It also acknowledges the principle of gender equity in land management and ownership; effective regulation of land development, transparent and good democratic governance. One of the things that people actually look at as negative, but which I think is a positive is the involvement and inclusion of non State actors. One of the things I would like to note, which we take for granted, is that this Policy is so user friendly. Even a child in Class Five can read it and understand. We need to demystify Government policy. We always think that when we have a Government policy, it must be in a language that can only be decoded by lawyers. We must move to a situation whereby we know that not every Kenyan is a lawyer. Kenyans must be able to communicate with its Government and the Government to communicate with its people. I am happy because the involvement of none State actors, I am sure, contributed greatly to a user friendly document. I would like to laud the principle and value of sustainable use of land as a finite resource. As I was going through this document, I was trying to count – and I gave up along the process – how many times the word “sustainable” is used. Whenever we use the word “sustainable”, it means that we are concerned about the children who are the present and the future of this country. Again, I would like to thank the Minister for Lands for the positive responses that are suggested in this Policy. There is the issue of rationalization of matters to do with holding of public land through harmonization of the legislative framework. I was actually joking with one of my friends and I said that if there is one subject that I hated in Law School, it is Land Law. The reason is that--- I can see the Temporary Deputy Speaker is smiling because I am sure he also hated Land Law. We hated it, not because it was bad, but because it was a nightmare. Before you start reading the Registration of Titles Act (RTA) and Registered Land Act (RLA) and before that, you would have gone to the Registration Regime; the Legislative Framework on Land Use and the Legislative Framework on Environment. There is a whole lot of legislative framework on land use and you might as well stop dealing with land. It is confusing and no wonder we have cases of land staying within the Judiciary for over 20 years. At one point, when I joined the Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA), I was helping a poor woman from Murang’a who had been trying to get her right to land. By the time I took over the matter, the case had been in court for 20 years."
}