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{
    "id": 1278175,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1278175/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 195,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Embakasi West, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Mark Mwenje",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1429,
        "legal_name": "George Theuri",
        "slug": "george-theuri"
    },
    "content": " Hon. Temporary Speaker, land secures livelihoods and it is also about food security. It causes conflicts between communities and gives them identity. As Africans, land is all about personhood and it gives us our full humanity. Allow me to note some points from the National Land Policy of 2009, a document that has been brought before this House. It provides that the National Land Policy is supposed to guide the country towards efficient, sustainable and equitable use of land for prosperity and posterity. The overall objective of the National Land Policy is to secure rights over land and provide sustainable growth, investments, reduction of property. Those are the issues that have been highlighted in this Policy. All citizens must have the opportunity to occupy land, to do economically viable projects on the land and we need efficient and effective operation of land markets and transparent land dispute resolution mechanisms. On the issue of informal settlements, the National Policy states: “The essence of informal or spontaneous or squatter settlements is the absence of security and tenure of planning.” In order to address the challenges of informal settlements, the same National Land Policy stipulates that we take an inventory of the genuine squatters, determine the land occupied by these squatters, establish appropriate mechanisms for removal of squatters and their subsequent resettlement, planning for land that is found to be suitable for human settlement, and ensure that informal settlements are developed in an orderly manner. I want to emphasise on the next three points under the National Land Policy: 1. Facilitate negotiations between private owners and squatters in cases of squatter settlements found on private land. 2. Facilitate the regularisation of existing squatter settlements found on public and community land for purposes of upgrading development. 3. Another key one is to establish a legal framework and procedures for transferring unutilised land belonging to absentee land owners to squatters and people living in informal settlements. Hon. Temporary Speaker, I brought this Motion because 40 per cent of land is un- adjudicated. The Government has not come up with a regularisation plan. I hope to bring a Bill that will substantively deal with this issue. There are over one million people residing on land that either belongs to absentee landlords or un-adjudicated public or community land. It is also worth noting that there are settlements where the occupants and the owners of the title deeds have ongoing disputes. There is room for negotiations to resolve some of the matters. There are court orders that cannot be implemented. Some of these people cannot be evicted because they have developed the land and have stayed there for years. The demolitions that have been done have been inhumane. We talk about inadequate housing yet we want to demolish. Our failure to regularise land will lead to inadequate housing especially for us in 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."
}