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{
    "id": 1404464,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1404464/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 248,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Tharaka, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. George Murugara",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you very much, Hon. Deputy Speaker. I rise to support the Bill. On the face of it, the Bill appears to be effecting minor amendments while in essence these amendments have far-reaching effects on the NLC and what it is supposed to do. It is vitally important to note that through this particular amendment we have to extend the power of the Commission to continue reviewing all grants and disposition of public land to establish their propriety or legality since Section 14 of the Act has lapsed. Many Kenyans do not know what the NLC does. It is supposed to deal with public land. We have made it appear like it deals with all the land in the country while that is not the case. The mandate of the Commission is on public land, especially protecting the rights pertinent thereto. Historically, Kenyans have found it extremely befitting to grab public land. To grab means to take land that belongs to the public illegally and without following the due process. What we have in the country today is that if you want to put up any public institution, it may become extremely difficult because the public land is gone. This is why we came up with the NLC to protect those rights. Where public land is taken away, this is the Commission that can confirm whether what was done was proper or improper. Once it makes a declaration that the acquisition was improper, it immediately starts the repossession process. With the lapse of Section 14 of the Act, NLC cannot perform this function. The Commission is left toothless. It will just be there to watch as greedy and hungry Kenyans take public land to the disadvantage of the common citizen. That is why it is extremely important that this amendment has been proposed. We should support it. Another function of the NLC is to address the issue of historical injustices. We know very well that since the advent of colonialism, we have been crying because of land unjustly taken away from us. First were the colonialists themselves who thought that Africans had no land rights. So they went about grabbing our land, with no compensation whatsoever. Eventually, we were herded into settlement areas and our right to land was never recognised until in the mid-1950s. Even where they recognised the right, it was extremely unfair especially to the residents of Central Kenya. Instead of recognising land rights to benefit Africans, it was a tool to punish those the colonialists thought had been involved in the Mau Mau freedom fight. Through various mechanisms, including establishment of the Registered Land Act, it was made mandatory that the owner of land who held a title had an indefeasible title. It could not be challenged under whatever circumstances. Therefore, the freedom fighters who were up in the mountain fighting for Independence found themselves landless. So, the law was used to dispossess them. That was a historical injustice. Soon after that, there were attempts to gain more land through the settlements that were being created through enactment of other laws which, although were trying to reduce the sanctity of titles, the sanctity remained paramount and unchallengeable. It is important to note today that if you obtain a title deed in an improper manner, the court has the power to declare that acquisition a nullity. Historical injustices came in when we set into politics. There were political clashes from time to time and people were displaced. There may have been arguments that the way so and so acquired land was improper because it belongs to this community and not the other, but a lot of people were dispossessed. The net effect is that these were historical injustices. I can give an example of my own constituency of Tharaka. We had made settlements in the larger Meru. That time we were one district, as they were called, and we had settled all over. Clashes were engineered by politicians on the basis that people from Tharaka Constituency had settled in areas that were not theirs, the net effect of which was to drive them out of that land. Eventually, because the politicians had the powers, they went ahead to 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"
}