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"id": 188519,
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"speaker_name": "Mr. Mwaita",
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"legal_name": "Sammy Sila Komen Mwaita",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me the opportunity to contribute and support this Vote. At the outset, let me congratulate the hon. Minister for the able manner in which he moved the Vote yesterday. He was so eloquent and precise if not candid. He explained in detail starting from the Mission Statement of the Ministry which he expounded and said that, the gist of the Mission Statement of the Ministry is to improve the livelihoods of Kenyans through efficient administration of land, equitable access and security of tenure. When we talk about the security of tenure, it means the sanctity of title deeds. I am glad that this Minister understands what sanctity of a title is. My colleague who spoke earlier did mention the previous Minister who went on record as describing title deeds as \"pieces of paper\". It was a sad day but for Mr. Orengo, he is an excellent Minster. Accept my congratulations. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, just to touch on a few areas the Minister mentioned in his speech, he talked about land management and he gave a figure of 147,000 titles processed in the last financial year. This is commendable. This figure is quite reasonable given the resources the Ministry is allocated. Other Members have come up and said that the resources, in terms of funding, given to this Ministry is just chicken feed. I wish to concur with that. The Minister himself said that they requested for Kshs5.6 billion and they were only allocated Kshs2.3 billion which translates to a mere 0.3 per cent. On the same note, the Minister did show that the Ministry is a revenue centre for the July 23, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 2075 Government. It earns revenue to the Government. In the last financial year alone, it earned Kshs6 billion. You earn Kshs6 billion and you are given just a third of that. We need to take Government services seriously and bring in the issue of business. If a centre is generating revenue, it should be ploughed back in it, in order to be able to generate more. I urge the Ministry, through the hon. Minister, to push the Ministry of Finance to look at it in the next Budget so that instead of just being given Kshs5.6 billion they should even be given Kshs12 billion so that Kenyans can get title deeds, have security of tenure and be able to access loans and generate wealth for this country. There are a number of areas in this country, particularly rural areas where title deeds are yet to be issued. The problem is funding. For example, in my constituency, there is settlement scheme called Mochongoi Settlement Scheme which has been in operation for the last 15 or 20 years. I remember last year, His Excellency the President directed that title deeds be issued. I wish to urge the Minister to speed up issuance of title deeds for Mochongoi Settlement Scheme. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, I also wish to commend the Minister on improvement of the billing system in the Settlement Fund Trustees (SFT). The billing system in the SFT is archaic and obsolete. I am glad to note that the Minister is going to do something to improve the billing system and computerise it. On the same note, I wish also to commend the Minister on his efforts to computerise the archaic land records. It is true that the land records in this country are still manually kept. There are records which were generated in the last century such as 1905 and 1906. You heard the Minister for East African Community, Mr. Kingi, allude to the fact that some of the title deeds were issued and they read the East African Protectorate and Kenya Protectorate. Those records are still kept. I wish to applaud the Minister and the Ministry for capturing 244,620 records. This is a commendable job. I only wish to urge the Ministry and the Minister to explore ways of coming up with a back up system for some of these records. Let us have a back up system and put it elsewhere so that in the event of a fire or a disaster in the Ministry of Lands Headquarters at Ardhi House, we should be able to develop and access the records easily. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I also wish to touch on the proposed Draft National Land Policy. It is true that in this country, as other Members have said, there is no comprehensive land policy. I wish also to commend the Minister and his staff for coming up with a comprehensive Draft National Land Policy. The problem on the land question in this country is not more on the policy, it is on the multiplicity of laws. The number of laws which touch on land are not less than 20. I hope when the new policy comes up, all these laws will be harmonised and come out as one. To be able to do this, Kshs16 million is not enough. It should have been five times that, Kshs50 million to Kshs60 million so that this country can get a comprehensive land policy. On land adjudication, I note that the Minister gave a figure of 30 adjudication sections which were completed in the last financial year. I hope that in this financial year, with the meagre resources, that number should be able to double. There are very many adjudication areas in this country which have not been done, like Kamuma-Kisonei Adjudication Section in my constituency. It is yet to be declared having been planned and slated for declaration ten years ago. I appeal to the Minister to accelerate the declaration of this adjudication section so that the residents of Kisonei are able to enjoy the fruits of owning title deeds. While on adjudication, I wish also to touch on one area. A few years back, the Ministry developed a policy to close all adjudication offices at the provincial level. I wonder whether this was prudent. I wonder whether this was really wise to close down provincial offices dealing with adjudication throughout the country. I urge the Ministry, through the Minister to reconsider reopening these offices so that they liaise with the Provincial Survey Offices. They were playing a major role by co-ordinating adjudication programmes particularly in the provincial level. It will assist to accelerate all what has 2076 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES July 23, 2008 been done so that adjudication programmes are completed in time. While on adjudication, I also wish to mention that there are districts, like my district where Development Vote is shown as Kshs344,000 for a whole a financial year. While I appreciate that the Ministry has been allocated very little money, that figure should be relooked into because it can do nothing. It will even be able to---"
}