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"id": 188509,
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"speaker_name": "Mr. Munya",
"speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister for East African Community",
"speaker": {
"id": 279,
"legal_name": "Joseph Konzolo Munyao",
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"content": " Thank you Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me the opportunity to contribute to the Vote. The vast majority of our people derive their livelihood from land. Therefore, the way land is managed and distributed is very critical. There are communities like the industrialised communities where land may not be such an important issue. However, in our country, most of the disputes and conflicts are land based. As a House, we are looking forward to debating the new land policy that the Minister has been working on. We support him in his work in resolving land matters that have been bedeviling this country since Independence. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, given the importance of this Ministry, therefore, the allocation that the Ministry has been given is a joke. If you look at the distribution of the money, you will see that the money meant for adjudication is very little. If you look at an average of Kshs200,000 per district for adjudication and the work that is expected to be done, if you are familiar with what the process of adjudication means, it is a joke. The Ministry has been saying that there is a crash programme for adjudication in areas where it has not been done like Meru North District. May be one or two adjudication sections have title deeds. We are told that there is a crash programme but if you go to the ground, it is not there. The clerks are not enough. The equipment that they use for survey is not enough. The technology is not there, they are using old systems of adjudication. We will never get out of this problem unless something radical is done. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, Meru North District started adjudication in 1966, some of us were not born then, and they are still grappling with the problem. So, the problems and conflicts have multiplied. Every day, month and year as we move on, the conflicts continue increasing because people continue sub-dividing their land and distributing it to their sons. Unless the Ministry thinks of another way of dealing with this problem, we are not likely to get anywhere. I am told that there is new computer technology that can be used to map out the pieces of land for people on the computer and then take it to the ground instead of using human labour to fix the boundaries. I am told that, that technology is there. However, I am also told that there is a delay. The Ministry is probably not in a hurry to adopt this technology that can help them resolve the disputes very quickly and give people title deeds. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, that is one of the issues I wanted to raise. The other issue is about delays in the Land Registry especially in Nairobi and other urban centres. When people try to transfer their property, there is a lot of delay. Other departments of Government such 2066 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES July 23, 2008 as the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) where the Government tries to raise revenue by giving services, have reformed, are moving very fast and are quick in offering their services. However, the Ministry of Lands still works the same way it was working before. One way of resolving some of the problems and dealing with corruption is standardizing valuation. For example, in Nairobi area, why is it that we cannot be told the cost of land valuation in certain areas? When you have done your valuation, if the piece of land you are buying is one acre, the value for the land should be standardized. This way, you will not have to get officers from the Ministry to go down and value what you have already valued again and the market value is already known. It is so easy to determine and know that, if it is Upper Hill area, the value of land is this much per acre. If it is Lavington, the value of land is this much per acre. If it is Eastlands, the value of land is this much per acre. They system we use is that if you want to buy a piece of land, you have to get the person selling it to value it, you buy it and then get somebody from the Ministry to go physically to your piece of land and come back and pretend to be doing valuation for you. You have to pay them money. That is where corruption comes in yet it is so easy to standardise this and then deal with these matters. This is also where the delays come in because somebody somewhere is trying to make you get some money for him before he provides the services. Standardisation will help in cutting the red tape and also dealing with corruption. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I am also happy that the Minister is dealing with district boundaries. This is another major problem. For example, in my area, there is a major dispute between Tigania District and Tharaka District. Occasionally, people fight because they do not know the boundaries, or rather, there is a dispute as to where the boundary starts and where it ends. Some of these disputes are very easy to deal with. Our district, Tharaka, has been existing since Independence. It existed as a division before it was elevated to a district. It used to be a constituency from the time Meru was one district. So was Tigania. Tigania was a division. It is now a district with several constituencies. We have maps showing the boundaries of those divisions or constituencies when they were first formed. So, with regard to the disputes, I never get to understand them. If those maps were used to survey and show, for example, that this is where the boundary passes, then there would not be all these killings and the disruption of life that takes place every time there is a land dispute. However, it is like the Government is never in a hurry. I am a member of the Government, but I find it very difficult to understand the Government. It is never in a hurry to resolve disputes, especially if there is no problem. For example, if people have not started fighting, nobody will be in a hurry to look at it. When there is a flare up, that is when you see the Government's activities. The District Commissioners and the police are rushed there. Discussions on the dispute start and when eventually things calm down, there is no activity. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, until recently, I have been pushing the Government to resolve this matter by getting elders and other people who are involved to go and survey the boundaries and show where they are. Nobody is in a hurry because there is no flare-ups and people are peaceful right now. When the problems will start, that is when you will see the Government. Could we now get out of that tradition of reacting to problems when they arise? I am happy because the Minister said that he already has a programme of mapping out all the districts so that people can know where the administrative boundaries start and end. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}