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{
"id": 188518,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/188518/?format=api",
"text_counter": 207,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Mwiru",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 107,
"legal_name": "Alex Muthengi Mburi Mwiru",
"slug": "alex-mwiru"
},
"content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, land is an essential commodity not only in this country but the world over. You realise that you cannot talk of any development without reference to land. There is no agriculture, no livestock, no pastoralism, or any other activity that can be carried on without land. I pity the Minister for Lands, because of the very brilliant ideas that he has to manage this particular essential commodity with very meagre resources that he is getting from this Government. It is not fair to imagine that we can take any steps towards development without proper management of this particular resource. It demands quite an enormous amount of money. I also want to look at the historical background of this particular country in relation to land. After Independence, many Kenyans thought that they would access this commodity. Up to today, more than 40 years down the line, they have not been able to access land. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, however, knowing how much most of our communities in Kenya believe in the ownership of this particular commodity; land, it is only necessary that a policy is developed to make sure that it is accessible to not only those people who have but even the have-nots. It is on this particular line, that I feel that whatever has been allocated especially to deal with matters to do with settlement is too little to think about. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, you also realise that any delay in rendering any service is justice denied to that very particular person who requires the service. The Land Adjudication Act and the Land Consolidation Act are quite cumbersome. I have cases which date back before even my mother was married, especially in Meru. We are talking of the 1960s especially 1967 and 1968 and yet this process is not yet over. In as much as some effort has been put in this line, justice has not been done to these people. I urge the Minister for Lands to find some way to speed up that particular process for these people to get their rightful documents. You will realise that in those two Acts, the process, right from the beginning, at the time of declaration of a section, all the way to the time that the person is ripe for getting his title, takes a lot of time and yet we know unscrupulous people can afford to mess around with this kind of process. However, I think it is still necessary for the Minister, being a lawyer of his stature, to look at how they can speed up the process for poor people to acquire titles in good time. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, land registries have been quite elusive in some districts of this country and these services have been rendered from other neighbouring or far off districts out of the place that people require that service. I am happy that the Minister for Lands has 2074 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES July 23, 2008 envisaged creating such registries so that, at least, these services are closer to the people. I am talking like this with reference to where I come from and the people I represent in mind, but even getting those titles is a problem because they have to travel long distances. Of course, the kind of process they undertake for someone to get that title involves somebody sleeping out there for one or two days and yet these are very poor farmers. I hope the Minister will think and consider setting up a land registry in that area. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to touch on the very dilapidated records of the Ministry of Lands. It is just the other day that the Minister was tabling a very tattered document in the name of titles or records of the titles and he was promising this House that he had started computerising. With these meagre resources he has got and unless he has got other funds from somewhere else, I do not believe his dream will come true. It will not bear fruit unless something else is done. Physical planning is a very important aspect in land matters and what I have realised is that physical planners are not even enough in this particular Ministry. There are many districts that are going without physical planers and they have to seek services from one physical planner who is serving maybe five or six districts or even three, for that matter. It is necessary to realise that some areas have lagged behind because there are no plans and the leases cannot be released or even given to the people without that kind of planning. So, I request that the Minister also looks at that. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, last but not least, there is a problem in Kenya on professional squatting. You realise that some people have always been ahead of the plans of the Government and it is high time the Minister for Lands was able to develop a framework on how to capture these kind of people. You realise one squatter can be in the Rift Valley Province and at the same time in Mombasa or even Taita Taveta. It is only necessary that such a data is developed in good time to capture those kind of people because what has been happening is just speculation and not just squatting. So, in essence, we must have a data bank for real squatters or real people who do not have land in this particular country and who can afford to be considered for purposes of resettlement or settlement within the settlement programme. You look at the Mau Forest problem right now, I do not believe that even the number of the people who are there now are actually just landless people but others are just speculators. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}