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{
"id": 188511,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/188511/?format=api",
"text_counter": 200,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Kingi",
"speaker_title": "The Minister for East African Community",
"speaker": {
"id": 27,
"legal_name": "Amason Jeffah Kingi",
"slug": "amason-kingi"
},
"content": " Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me this opportunity. I stand to support the Vote as moved by the Minister for Lands. May I also take this opportunity to congratulate the Minister for a job well done. The Ministry of Lands is one of those very difficult portfolios in Government. In fact, if it was a highway, I would say that it is a black spot. I think time has come for us, as a Government, to realise that land is a problem. It is so much a problem to the extent that if you look at the post-election period where we had violence rocking the whole nation, one of the fundamental factors that really catalysed whatever happened was land. This is because land in this Republic has never been given on an even proportion. There are those who have it on a large scale and those who do not have it at all. Those who do not have land at all are very many. Therefore, there is a feeling that land as a resource for creation of wealth is actually concentrated in very few hands and hence, the violence that rocked this country. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I will just look at the land problem in one region, specifically the Coast region, where I come from. For us to move forward in resolving the issue of land, we need to look at history, because there are quite a number of things that were done wrong. There are historical injustices that were committed by the colonial Government, the Kenyatta Government, the Moi Government and God knows who else; maybe we will stop at that. If you look at history, the land problem at the Coast is very unique. It is unique in the sense that even as we speak now, there is an Act of Parliament that is only applicable to the Coast region, the Lands Titles Act. You will never find it being applicable elsewhere, because the land system at the Coast is very unique; therefore, the land problems there are also very unique. The Lands Titles Act originated in the colonial times, but then it was referred to as the \"Lands Title Ordinance\", and it was promulgated by the British imperial masters. What they did was that they came up with an Ordinance, and one of the provisions in that particular ordinance was that any person living within the Ten-mile Coastal Strip had six months to lay a claim on whichever piece of land they were occupying, so that they could take that claim to the Recorder of title deeds for them to get title deeds. When all this was happening, the indigenous people had been pushed into the hinterlands, because of the slave trade that was going on. Many people had run away from the Ten-mile Coastal Strip deep into the hinterland. Therefore, the ones who were actually within the Ten-mile Coastal Strip were mostly the Arabs and Arab immigrants. One of the conditions for you to lay a claim with the Recorder of title then was that you had to be physically in occupation of the portion of July 23, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 2069 land. What happened was that many Arab emigrants laid many claims on land and some of them were not living within the coastal strip. So, the whole exercise was done fraudulently. The Recorder of titles had no time to verify these claims and, therefore, title deeds were dished out to many Arabs. These are the title deeds that were in the Protectorate, that was 1908 and 1909, quite a number of them. These title deeds comprise of many very big chunks of land, and that is the biggest problem we have. The bulk of title deeds in this Republic are the ones that were dished out during the Protectorate period and they are in the hands of Arabs. That was before Independence. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, when Kenya attained Independence, one of the provisions in the Independence Constitution was that the independent Government was going to recognise the titles that were, otherwise, obtained fraudulently. Therefore, there was no time for the Government to assess the validity of these particular title deeds. That is why at the Coast we have title deeds reading 1908. The locals, currently, are residing on these portions of land, and that is why we have the coined term \"squatters\". We have many squatters at the Coast region, because land is being held by people who are not even living in Kenya; these are the Arabs. Upon Independence, the Government came up with some ways of resolving this matter. In 1975, there was an inter-Ministerial Committee that was set up to investigate the issue of land at the Coast and a report came out. In 1976, there was a Parliamentary Select Committee to, again, investigate and probe the issue of land at the Coast, and a report was made available. It is still gathering dust somewhere in this House. There was also the Ndung'u Report that brought out the ills that obtain at the Coast. Nothing has been done! This is such that at the moment, what I urge the Minister for Lands is to avoid the temptation of setting up commissions to probe land issues. We have enough available material to look at and, therefore, go forward. The 1975 report is in this House, so is the 1976 report and the Ndung'u report. All those are working documents that I believe the Minister can look at and resolve the issue of land at the Coast, once and for all. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, one of the other issues is the one of settlement schemes. That was one of the recommendations by the inter-Ministerial Committee of 1975. Quite a number of settlement schemes were established, but again there was a problem because the big fish in the Government - I hope this current Government will not have that cancer - benefited more than even the local people that these settlement schemes were intended to benefit. Another problem that comes up with the settlement schemes is the issue of fees. For example, there is a settlement scheme in my constituency, Magarini Settlement Scheme, which started a while ago. It was mismanaged but we are still struggling with it. One of the biggest impediments is the fees that is payable by the locals, so that they can ultimately get the title deeds. It started at Kshs75,000 and came to as low as Kshs7,5000. But even if we talk about Kshs7,500 as fees payable by a local to get his title deed, still, at the rural level, that is a lot of money. Here is a person who can go for a whole year without even making Kshs200, and you are telling him to raise Kshs7,500 for him to get his title deed. We are actually condemning these people to never owning title deeds. So, we urge the Minister to re-activate things, because that is one of the issues. Thank God that the Minister will be coming to the Coast this week and, of course, one of the issues we are urging him to do, is the reactivation of the settlement schemes that were started and mismanaged at some level. Again, we will be making a plea to the Minister that the fees payable for one to acquire his or her title deed should either be waived or put at a peppercorn. There is normally a time duration within which you are supposed to pay up this amount of money. In Magarini Constituency, the Magarini Settlement Scheme, I believe, is winding up its business next year. Those who will not be able to raise the money by then will be deemed not to 2070 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES July 23, 2008 have been serious enough to get the title deeds. Therefore, they will not be given the title deeds, and there is quite a number of them. So, we urge the Minister that, as he tackles this issue, the fees should be reduced Again, I just want to make a brief comment on the kind of Budget that the Ministry has been given. Looking at the seriousness of the issue of land and the job ahead, because the Minister has come out with an elaborate plan on how he intends to tackle the land issue countrywide, the budget he has been given may not be able to do much. We know he means very well for the country, and he is out to make sure that a solution is obtained as far as land issues are concerned. But looking at the Budget allocation, he may not be able to achieve much. The Government will be called upon at some stage to, maybe, purchase land for purposes of resettling people. This will happen at the Coast, because land is already in the hands of rich individuals. This land has been settled upon. For the Government to settle its people, there may be need for it to buy these chunks of land so that it can be sub-divided and given to the people. But if the Minister does not have the money, how then will he buy this land and distribute it to the locals? I guess we need to do much in as far as the Budget allocation is concerned. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}