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{
    "id": 1183496,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1183496/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 158,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kesses, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Julius Rutto",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "challenge because of this fragmentation. What I am trying to say is that this House needs to provide direction. The national and county governments need to have serious sittings on this matter. I know county governments have this function because it is devolved but they do not have sufficient capacity to address it. We have issues of physical planning that are coming into place. We need to put all these together. Finally, it is to support this Motion by Ferdinand Wanyonyi. We need to come up with legislative support. We have to decide the point at which to allow fragmentation of land for settlement. We need to reserve the little space we still have because we have to eat to live. This small generation coming up needs food to exist for years to come. What happens if we do not project this? The Government is struggling in feeding the current generation and we are not foreseeing future challenges that are going to come. Kenya will not be sustained by imports. Kenya has to have a discussion on a way of supporting its population by producing food locally. One of the issues to address in land is the landmass we have in place. Finally, the other day the President talked about taxing of wealth. We are now faced with many challenges in raising our revenues. One area on wealth matters is land. We also need to have a discussion and a policy on idle land—the landowner who sits in Nairobi and 500,000 acres are back there in the village. We need to awaken this person and tell him that if this land cannot be utilised for production so that the Government generates revenue, then let this land attract some annual taxes. One will choose to either lease it out to a potential investor, till it or pay the Government and the Government raises revenues to meet its obligations. This discussion needs to be looked at seriously. We need to protect areas. Let us zone areas so that we do not open up the available spaces to settlement and fragmentation of the land. It even makes it easier for the Government to provide the said services—water, sewerage and health services. Sometimes you go to a place and get some settlements in a radius of around 5 kilometres. When you want to put up a hospital, it becomes a challenge for this population to access health services. Let us concentrate settlements in one area and leave other areas for production. I rise to support this Motion but say that we need to have a lot of public participation. What kills such good approaches is when the agencies do not give an opportunity to the public to give their opinions. Let us allow the public to make their contributions. Let us bring it down. Let us discuss it. In the long run, they will support the Government when they understand. But if we approach it from top down, I tell you it will be a problem. Nobody is willing to let go. We also need to sensitise the public on succession because that is where the problem is. We do not want femicides and homicides taking place day in and out getting—children killing parents and parents killing their children because of land. When you look at it in the long run, it is a problem. Support to families is also one of the triggering factors. We are poor and the only asset we have is land. You want to take your children to school. You want to pay for health care. Cancer is seriously ravaging the country and the only available money is land. You sell it not because you wanted to sell but to address the challenge facing you. As we are looking at this, the Government also needs to think outside the box and say what we are going to do to protect this. Let us provide alternative ways of supporting the needs of households. Thank you so much for this opportunity. I congratulate my neighbour, Hon. Ferdinand Wanyonyi. Mheshimiwa, you came up with the right Motion. We need to put it in place. Hon. Mbadi said we look at it to execution."
}