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{
    "id": 1459298,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1459298/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 272,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Mungatana, MGH",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Ministry to quickly get land allocated to them before selling it at a profit. Someone would be walking today, tomorrow, they are driving and they buy a mansion the next day because of land grabbing. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, land grabbing is one of the worst injustices that has occurred in this country. In the Constitution of Kenya 2010 and Sessional Paper No.3 of 2009 on National Land Policy, the Government recommended that this is one issue we need to deal with as fast as possible. The phenomenon of land grabbing became a very serious issue during 1990s. It became very pronounced and such a thorny issue that greatly contributed to serious instabilities in the political circles and during election cycles. There were land clashes in 1992. There were equally some land clashes in 1997. Every time people went to an election and one side or the other lost, this issue would be played out to the public because it is emotional. It is like a wound that has not healed. The same thing was being hyped in 2002, so that people become angry at the Government. In the coast region, for example, many people feel that successive governments have not dealt with land issues as they should. Many people are bitter because they are squatting on land that was meant to be theirs. If you are not educated on the process of alienation of land for your community or you as an individual, then somebody from Nairobi or elsewhere comes and tells you that that title is theirs. They do not come just like that, but with police, goons and whoever is available to assist them. We have suffered a lot at the coast because of alienation of public land. People are living in communities that do not have titles. You just hear that a certain company has alienated 2,000 acres of your land. To date, I am struggling with that problem in Hurara Area in Tana River County where many people are living, but they cannot get titles because a certain individual registered a company, hid under it and got over 3,000 acres of land near the beach. People have been living there, but they cannot register, just to discover that someone else has that land registered in the name of a company. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, going back to history, in 2022 because of the pressure and everything, the Government in response to what was happening at that time decided to set up a Land Commission to identify those people who are benefiting from illegal or irregular land allocations. Although many people talk of Ndung’u, they do not know who Mr. Ndung’u was. Mr. Ndung’u was a very prominent and convincing lawyer in our days when we were younger. In those days, we used to know that if Mr. Ndung’u prepares a convincing document, then it must be correct. The pick of that topnotch lawyer to Chair this Commission on land was correct. He did a fantastic job, but when the beneficiaries were named; when he recommended the legal and policy steps that should be taken to correct the situation; he was threatened and was told many things. He concluded the exercise in two years. From 2002 to June 2004. He finished that report and handed it over to the authorities. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, to date, that report has not been implemented. Some of the greatest beneficiaries of grabbing public land have been people in Government. Some The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only.A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and Audio Services,Senate."
}