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{
    "id": 137506,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/137506/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 558,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Kingi",
    "speaker_title": "The Minister for East African Community",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 27,
        "legal_name": "Amason Jeffah Kingi",
        "slug": "amason-kingi"
    },
    "content": "Indeed, there is need to harmonise our land ownership system. The multiplicity of laws that govern land have contributed greatly to the ills that go with the land ownership in this country. I will touch on a particular statute that has been used to marginalise our people. This is the Land Title Act. This was referred to as the “Land Title Ordinance” before Independence. This statute is only applicable in Coast Province; that is within the 10-mile coastal strip. The Land Title Ordinance was passed by the British Government primarily to dispossess the nations of the Miji Kenda people from their ancestral land. It was passed way back in 1902. During that period, Coast Province was under the command of the Sultan of Zanzibar. The British colony was given the mandate to administer the coastal area by the Sultan of Zanzibar. So, it was a protectorate. In 1902, the British Government passed the Land Title Ordinance. By then, slavery was at its peak. The Miji Kenda people who had settled within the 10- mile strip were forced to run away into the Nyika Plateau. They ran away from people who were looking for slaves. It was during that time that this Ordinance was passed. One of the provisions of this Ordinance was that people were given six months within which to lay their claim with the recorder of titles in Mombasa. The Miji Kenda people had run into the Nyika Plateau and had no knowledge of this Ordinance. The people who took advantage of this Ordinance were the Arabs who were not the indigenous people and had not settled within the 10-mile coastal strip. The claims that were made by the Arabs were fraudulent. One of the conditions for one to lay a claim with the recorder of titles was that you must have some plan within that area and had settled in the area. None of the claimants that laid claims in 1902 had constructive ownership or settlement of these areas. Therefore, most of the claims that were made in 1902 were fraudulently done and yet, the recorder of title approved those claims and titles were issued to mainly Arab settlers within the area. After slavery was abolished, the Miji Kenda left their hideouts and came down to repossess their ancestral land, only to find that title deeds had been issued to people who were not deserving. There began the problem of squatters at the Coast Province. Large chunks of land, all the way from Vanga to Lamu are owned by few people and none of them are indigenous Miji Kenda people. At Independence, the Government had a chance to put right the wrong that was done through the Land Title Ordinance. However, the Independence Government, instead of rejecting the titles that were otherwise fraudulently acquired by the Arabs authenticated the title deeds and, therefore, they became valid documents after Independence. That action by the Independence Government put the final nail on the agony of the Miji Kenda people."
}