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{
    "id": 1404461,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1404461/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 245,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Marakwet West, Independent",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Timothy Kipchumba",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Deputy Speaker, for giving me the opportunity to contribute to this very important piece of legislation. From the outset, I wish to thank Hon. Owen Baya for proposing such a progressive piece of legislation. The National Land Commission Act is one of the most crucial laws that Parliament has passed. It tackles the issue of historical land injustices that our country has been facing since time immemorial. We hope that this Commission will finally resolve this issue once and for all. However, the drafters of this Act included some sunset clauses that created significant drawbacks in terms of implementation. This Commission was established under Article 67 of the Constitution. Article 67(1)(e) provides that one could initiate a complaint about present or historical land injustice and recommend appropriate redress. The unfortunate thing is that the sunset clause meant that a claim could not be processed if it was more than five years old. The proposed amendment to remove that clause provides that an individual can now raise an issue without a time limit. In my constituency, we have had issues with the Chebororwa ADC Farm. As a community, we strongly believe that this land belongs to Marakwet West Constituency, in Elgeyo Marakwet County but it was transferred to Uasin Gishu County. This is a historical land injustice. If the five-year term limit is removed, this issue can be addressed as a historical land injustice. I understand that there is also a piece of land in Kapsowar Town that was taken and reallocated for administrative purposes, and to this day, the issue has not been addressed. The people who were moved from that land have not been compensated. I firmly believe that allowing more time to investigate historical land injustices will enable us to address such issues. Hon. Deputy Speaker, I would like to propose an amendment during the Committee of the whole House. Hon. Owen Baya should have set a timeline for addressing historical land injustices. I suggest that it should not take more than a year to address these matters. If it takes more than five years, it will be an injustice in itself. Therefore, during the Committee of the whole House, I will propose an amendment to put a time limit on addressing these issues. I also support the amendment of deleting Section 15(11) which provides that the timeline is capped at 11 years. It was unfortunate that when this law was put in place, that section would lapse after 11 years. The section addresses the issue of historical land injustices. If we repeal that section, it would mean that historical land injustices would not be time bound. They can be reviewed at any time without the capping of time to 11 years. It is also important that we review other statutes apart from this particular piece of legislation that caps time to five years, so that historical land injustices are addressed. Time limit should not affect historical land injustices. 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"
}