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"speaker_name": "Mr. Kapondi",
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"legal_name": "Fred Chesebe Kapondi",
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"content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I was saying that land is a very emotive issue because the livelihood of Kenyans hinges on land. Kenya is basically an agro economy. In this case of Syokimau, it is a very sad case in the sense that those ones who are vested with the responsibility of land administration in this country, more or less, found themselves in a situation of complicity. In the process, hundreds of Kenyans have lost their livelihoods and their hard- earned money over the years. They ended up investing in Syokimau with a very strong belief that their investments would, in turn, assist their families. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, as I speak, Kenyans who have lost a lot of property there have nowhere to go. Many begging questions arose when the Joint Committee visited Syokimau and subsequent interrogations that the Committee had with the Ministers concerned and other stakeholders. The nagging questions that the Committee found it very difficult to get answers were as follows. The Ministry of Local Government which supervises county councils was not aware, at all, that Syokimau was part of Nairobi; it was part of the City Council of Nairobi. That was until after the demolitions, when the Ministers appeared before the Joint Committee. That is when a shocked Permanent Secretary for Local Government was surprised to say that Syokimau was in Nairobi after being informed by the Permanent Secretary for Lands who produced the maps. However, for a long time, the Mavoko County Council approved the plans and collected land rent in Syokimau. Even the area Councillor of Syokimau reported to Mavoko. Therefore, there is a situation where Government Ministries are not properly informed of the jurisdiction of a particular area. It is, indeed, a very sad case. That is the case of Syokimau. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, it is good that the Minister is here. A serious allegation of forgery was made. It goes through the Attorney-General and the Government Printer. Kenyans in the process, with the trust that a Legal Notice that has been issued by the Government is valid, went ahead to do transactions in Syokimau. The Minister only realized that something was amiss after the demolitions. He realized that his signature had been forged. However, the Ministry did not take any remedial measure to correct that anomaly, if, at all, it existed. So, what happened is that hundreds of Kenyans ended up investing there. Interestingly again was the following: The owner, Kenya Airports Authority, (KAA), after going to court in 2004 because of what they believed was incursions into their land by intruders, never exhausted the court processes. As we speak, there is a pending court case between KAA and Syokimau inhabitants. It has not been concluded. So, for KAA to proceed to issue notices which were later acted on to demolish is, indeed, a very sad scenario. I do not know at what point in terms of law that a notice is more superior to a case before a court. In the process, because of what the Committee rightly called impunity, KAA decided to take a shortcut. It is a shortcut in the sense that they left a court case not concluded and proceeded with the demolitions. Now what happened to the hundreds of Kenyans who had invested there heavily? People had spent millions of shillings. It is this kind of impunity that we are saying should come to an end. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the raft of proposals and recommendations that we came up with as a Committee more or less - if this House adopts this Report - would go down to assist the many Kenyans who are suffering on a daily basis because of lack of information or hiding of information by the Ministry of Lands as is the case in the Syokimau issue. I am happy that, at least, the Minister has started cracking the whip. We have read that in the newspapers. A number of civil servants are facing the music in the Ministry of Lands. In Mitumba where thousands of hapless Kenyans were affected, the most unfortunate thing is that those villagers had been pushed from Bandari Estate where they used to stay. When a developer developed Bandari Estate, they were pushed to the remaining unoccupied piece of land. Now, interestingly, what the Joint Committee discovered is that the unoccupied land, which is Mitumba Village, had three title deeds. Two title deeds were surrendered and one is still in the hands of private individuals. So for KAA in this case to say: “This is our land. Get these villagers out”, there are more questions that beg for answers and you cannot get them from KAA. Even for them to say that, indeed, that is their land when they have an old fence and the remaining portion is basically a small area that has no relationship at all with the flight path during takeoff, one begs for more answers. There could be more than meets the eye in this particular case. All in all, what is critical is that those hapless Kenyans who were left in the cold and who are living in ramshackle structures cannot just be left like that. That is why the Joint Committee recommended that there should be some kind of compensation for those people. Some of them have known that place to be home for all the years of their lives. We found an old man who is almost 80 years old who gave a history of how the name “Mitumba” came up. When developers were putting up Bandari they said: “These are just mitumbas”. All these things were done with the full knowledge of the Government. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, it, therefore, beats logic that the people you have given responsibility--- You have been told: “Stay there!” But many years down the line, you go there and demolish their structures. It is really a very sad case. For the Eastleigh issue, as a Joint Committee, we were thoroughly convinced by the security reasons given through a presentation by a Colonel who is the Airbase Commander. One thing which we have to admit here is that the security of this country is very critical. Whatever is happening currently in Somalia, the effects are being felt in Kenya. They are felt inside our country in areas like Wajir and Mandera in North Eastern Province. Without going much into details, the Committee recommended that it is critical that approvals by the Ministry of State for Defence, when it comes to any structure in Eastleigh, should be given priority. Those ones who have been responsible for acts of impunity should face the music. But all in all, it is important that as the Executive and as Government agencies, we respect the law. Let us not take shortcuts. We have reformed the Judiciary and we should trust it to give us a conclusion of any dispute. However, to leave them aside and proceed as if there is no law is the impunity that we need to fight in this country. With those few remarks, I beg to second this very important Motion."
}