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{
    "id": 1499942,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1499942/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 133,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Alice Wahome",
    "speaker_title": "The Cabinet Secretary for Lands, Public Works, Housing and Urban Development",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Let me come to the issues of Kilifi South asked by hon. Sen. Madzayo of Kilifi County. I identify with the challenges you are raising. Before you stepped in, I had said that we have professional squatters. However, I know we have genuine squatters. We also have people who get on to a land, become squatters even when they were not squatters. I had said that those squatters are owned by people and moved from one place to another. The squatters cannot have a right without any reason. As a Ministry, we would have to interrogate that. In your county, we have two schemes; Msabaha and Takaungu. Those are schemes that are purely meant to give land to squatters. The programme that comes very handy to address the squatter problem is the land settlement program, where we buy land for squatters. That programme requires funding as well. You asked me what we are doing as a Ministry. Whenever we have money, we buy land. However, we also need to be specific and strict about squatter problem in the entire coastal region. You said that there are squatters who are being evicted and there are court orders. For someone to get a court order, he has been able to persuade the court that he is the owners of the land. These are very complex issues. Some of the people who sell the land are the squatters. I want us to be very specific and deal with one issue after another so that whenever we have funding, we can address specific squatter problem. We should also be very selective and careful because we cannot afford to buy land for everyone, but genuine squatters. We also have a challenge with settlement schemes in Mombasa. The minute you settle people and give documentation, they look for buyers of the land the following day. They then move to another area to be squatters for the same purpose. As leaders, let us give awareness on the same. We had a provision in the law that you cannot transfer land given by way of settlement. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, some very clever people have also gone to court and got an order that once we give land through settlement as a Ministry, we cannot restrict the right to use or transfer because it is a constitutional right. We are now forced to allow someone who may want to transfer their land after we have given them. We may delay, but we do not have a right to stop you. Let us also send right messages to these people. By doing so, we can reduce the numbers. That is the best I can do. I do not know whether there is any other part of your question. Sen. Omogeni was talking about the acquisition, while your question was generally about compensation. I want to exhaust Sen. Madzayo’s question. If he is satisfied, I can move on to the second part of Sen. Omogeni’s question."
}