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"content": "which is very, very unique because he assisted us to look into the budget of his Ministry in advance. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Minister mentioned that during the year 2007/2008, they inspected and maintained 41 national and international boundary pillars for purposes of enhancing good neighbourliness and peaceful co-existence. Whereas I wish to congratulate the Minister for that effort in this financial year, I want to just remind him that there may be a requirement to revisit some of those pillars in our neighbouring states. I can give some details on some of the beacons that may have been interfered with by some criminal elements unknown to the neighbouring states and to ourselves. That is very important in order to enhance the security of our borders. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Minister also mentioned the completion of mapping out of 30 new district administrative boundaries. As you know, as of today, we have 148 districts. So far, 111 districts have had their administrative boundaries defined and there is, therefore, a balance of 47 to go. I encourage the Minister to speed up the delineation of those boundaries using the Department of Survey so that we can minimise the conflicts between districts. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would also like to draw the attention of the Minister to the fact that, group ranches that were created in Samburu District from 1969 up to 1972 and even a few years after, do not have title deeds because of the high level of fees required. In some group ranches, the fees required is Kshs7 million to get the title deed. The people in my constituency, who are pastoralists, do not have the capacity to raise such a large amount of money. Indeed, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I recall that during the year 2005, during the Referendum campaigns, the Government promised to abolish these fees and, up to now, we have not seen any movement in that direction. I would like to appeal to the Minister to re-look at the question of fees for group ranches, so that Kenyans can have the opportunity to make decisions on those group ranches; whether to subdivide them or to continue maintaining them as group ranches. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to thank the Minister for his transparency in bringing out the existence of Solio Ranch Settlement Scheme. There were difficulties last year in getting information as to what was going on there. I am glad that the Minister has mentioned here that he has surveyed seven villages. Solio Ranch, I believe, is somewhere in Nanyuki in Rift Valley Province. The scheme has been divided into 3,038 half-acre plots. He has also said that he has established 30 blocks for the farming land. It would be very interesting to some of us who live in Rift Valley to know the distribution of those 3,038 half-acre plots. Maybe, in his response, the Minister could enlighten us. But it is important that, as we distribute land in certain areas, we need to mix the people of Kenya. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, let me now talk about physical planning. I think there is need to enforce physical planing regulations with regard to the setting up of urban centres in this country. A number of urban centres do not have physical plans. They are very badly planned. I think, very soon, some of our urban centres - even the small ones in villages - will turn out to be slums. I hope the Minister will look into that. July 23, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 2063 The other issue that I want to raise is forests. About 25 per cent of gazetted forest cover in Kenya is located in Samburu District where I come from. Samburu District in the northern part of Kenya is a semi-arid area. The colonialists in the 1930s gazetted several acres of land in the name of forests to keep us away from the fertile land which they wanted to alienate. As of now, a number of our urban centres, including the three district headquarters are located within the forest land. I know that the responsibility over forests does not lie entirely in the Minister's docket. However, I do appreciate the law which was passed two years ago and when it will be fully operationalized, I hope that there will be an opportunity for the Minister to liaise with the Minister for Forestry and Wildlife and re-look into the issue of boundaries, so that towns in Samburu which are located in a semi-desert land can be relocated, especially given that our people are very good in conserving forest land. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to request the Minister to look into the land situation in Laikipia. Land issues in Laikipia are a source of conflict. First of all, we have Government land, the holding grounds and outspans which were set aside in the 1960s and 1970s when the livestock industry was at its best. It appears as if a number of people have now settled on those outspans. I think it is important that those livestock routes are cleared. A number of people from my constituency over the years, have bought land from the land- buying companies which originally bought land earlier on thinking that it was suitable for agriculture. The land turned out to be marginal. In turn, these people sold this land to Samburus. However, the formalisation of that land has not taken place. A number of land owners also are absentee landlords, leaving vast tracts of land unoccupied. This invites pastoralists to occupy the area, hence causing insecurity. In fact, sometimes it becomes an arena of conflict among the pastoralists communities. I would like the Minister to look into that situation because people have displaced one another and now leave in camps as Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). I know that this is not entirely his area. I am sure that if he can resolve that for the people who own title deeds, those title deeds must be respected. People should be allowed to move back to their land irrespective of what tribes they belong to in Laikipia. Thereafter, those people who are living now in IDP camps can go back to their places and lead normal lives. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}