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{
"id": 1457734,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1457734/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Mandago",
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"speaker": {
"id": 13577,
"legal_name": "Kiplagat Jackson Mandago",
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"content": "Thank you very much, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir. I rise to support the Land (Amendment) Bill (National Assembly Bills No.40 of 2022) to ensure that all public land and utilities are titled. As I support the amendments on the Lands Act to ensure public utilities are entitled, there is need to also look at the Cities and Urbans Act and the role of the Director of Physical Planning. We have seen situations where residential estates are well designed and public amenities are well catered for. Public utilities like markets, children playgrounds, schools, churches, bus stops and even greening areas. Unfortunately, with the powers vested on the Director of Physical Planning, both in the county and nation governments, they can re-plan the same earlier planned facility. Most of the time, the re-planning is to privatize the public utilities that had already been set aside in the first planning. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, even as we do the amendments in this Land Act to ensure that public land and utilities are titled, we should be weary of the Cities and Urbans Act and the roles of the directors of physical planning. Right now, it is a requirement that if there is any subdivision of land in the urban areas, at least, four percent of that land should be reserved for public use and amenities. What we are seeing now, especially in Nairobi and its metropolitan area are estates being developed by co-operative societies where land is subdivided to the last plot without providing for public utilities, while it is going to carry a huge population. That leaves a bill for either the county or the national Government to foot in the future, because the population that will reside there will begin asking for social amenities. Residents will begin asking county governments for health facilities, schools, nursery schools and police stations. They will also want county governments to budget for acquisition of land. I therefore propose, even as we look at this Land (Amendment) Bill, that land surrendered for public use and any subdivision in this country, both in urban and rural areas, caters for public amenities as required in law. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the issue of titling public utilities should not be just an amendment to ensure that it is done, but it should make sure that on subdivision, before title deeds are issued to members of the public, Government or public utilities are given priority on issuance of title deeds. Marginalized communities in this country, especially in the northern part of Kenya and in counties like Turkana, Marsabit and parts of Narok and Kajiado, land is still communal. The NLC together with the Ministry of Lands, Public Works, Housing and Urban Development should move with speed to support county governments in that region to make sure there is adjudication. If it is a community ranch, let there be a title deed for that community ranch, regardless of the thousands of acres that are there. With the discovery of many minerals in this country, some elites will soon have title deeds of various parts of this country, only for the resident community and locals to discover that the land they call ancestral and community land belongs to others who have used their privileged position to access vital information in order to dispossess residents of that area. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I support these amendments because they will create sanity in terms of public land and also ensure that the public land set aside for social The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and AudioServices, Senate."
}