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{
    "id": 137513,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/137513/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 565,
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    "content": "guidance on the way forward. It has stated what should be done about land reforms. The Government spent a lot of money to come up with the Ndung’u Report. But it has kept quiet about the report. Soon or later, another Commission will be appointed, probably by the current Minister, to deal with the same issue. That is why I am saying that we must obey the laws of the land. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I also want to talk about people who have been allocated land for political reasons. During the previous regime, I know some people who were compromised on political issues and were given thousands of acres of land. Those people were in high Government positions and they were compromised to protect the system at that time. They are not in the current Government. We have the current Government and sooner or later, we will have another Government. We will have another Government and Kenya will continue like that until the end of the world. It is a waste of time for us to talk about land reforms when we have people who have been allocated pieces of land without paying a single cent and yet, poor Kenyans are languishing out there looking for even half an acre to settle on. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the people who were evicted from their pieces of land during the post- election violence are still languishing in the streets. Some of them are still residing in makeshift (IDP) camps. What measures are being put in place to find out where the people who own over 100,000 acres of land bought it from? Who sold it to them? They should produce their sale agreements. If they were allotted and they are not doing anything with those pieces of land, then that land can be re-allocated to the poor Kenyans, who do not own any land. If the situation demands, then the Government should purchase those pieces of land and allocate them to poor Kenyans. Kenya depends on agricultural production. We have the National Youth Service that we spend a lot of money to train. They take two to three years to train. Some of them join the military while others join the Police Force. However, we still have young men at the NYS. We have prisoners who are squeezed in small cells in our prisons. Why should an individual own 100,000 acres of land? We should give 90,000 acres to NYS to grow food for Kenyans. We feed our prisoners, give them medication and clothes and yet, at the end of the day, they do not do anything that gives a return on what the country contributes to maintain them. About 1 million acres of land have been proposed to be leased to a Middle East company down at the Coast for farming. Our prisoners, with the equipment that we have in our prisons and at the NYS, can grow food for this country and Kenya will not import foodstuffs. That will reduce the cost of buying food. The Government will also buy that food and, at least, have some money to pay the prisoners before they are released from prison. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, land is what Kenyans know and anybody who plays around with their land, plays with their lives. With those very many words, I beg to support."
}