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"id": 188759,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/188759/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Imanyara",
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"legal_name": "Gitobu Imanyara",
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"content": "Thank you, Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker. I want to take this opportunity to thank the Minister because he is one the very few July 22, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 1987 Ministers who I can unreservedly support because he is a man of principle. I am extending this support today rather with great reservations because looking at this document and looking at the Meru Central, I see that the development allocation for that district is zero and yet, Eldoret North has Kshs52 million. We need some equity in the manner in which we allocate resources. This Minister is taking office at a time when this Ministry of Lands is in need of great reforms. I would like to say that the reform must necessarily begin with the Ndungu Report. When the Minister was referring to the achievements of the Ministry, he must be congratulated recognising the forces that are ringed against him. I would like to say that we in this House will be very happy to see a Minister being sacked for standing for principle. If one of them is going to do so, we expect that it will be the Minister for Lands because we know that he means what he says. So, let us see some action now and let us see implementation of the Ndungu Report notwithstanding the fears. We know that when it comes to land whether one is in the PNU or ODM, there is unity of purpose. They all have a common history in grabbing public property for self-enrichment. So, when we see those with the reform agenda in this Government, we, as Members of Parliament, must go out of the way to support them so that the appointing authority will know that these are men and women who enjoy the confidence of the representatives of the people of Kenya. These are not people who depend on the goodwill of one or two occupants of a high office in the Republic. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, in my constituency, Central Imenti, we have one of the largest slum areas. When we talk about slums in this country, we never remember Mashaka which is within Kibirichia division of my district which has a population of close to 10,000 people in a land of less than 300 square metres. You see graves one or two feet away from the door step of a living quarter in this area. Every year, since 1963, when we had a Minister for Lands from that region, we have been promised Government action. Land has been set aside within the mountain region but when it comes to resettling these people who live in Mashaka, it is given to influential people and these people remain squatters now in their third generation. I am inviting the Minister for Lands to come with me again, now that he occupies an executive position in Government, and revisit this area where we have been with him in the past days in the original FORD and FORD (K) to see the yearning for change by people. There will never be change in this country unless we address the land problem. So, looking at this breakdown of the provincial and district allocations for the Recurrent Vote, I would like to believe that when it was being prepared there were certain mistakes made. Otherwise, we would not have Bondo in Nyanza Province with allocation of Kshs36 million which is far larger than any allocation in western Kenya where it is situated. I would also like to ask the Minister to look at the boundary dispute that has caused tremendous problems in this country. I am talking specifically about the boundary dispute that connects the three districts of Imenti and Tharaka where for years and years there have been hostilities caused by lack of land adjudication and survey. These people speak the same language but because the land they occupy has not been adjudicated and where it has been adjudicated, it has not been surveyed, every year, there is insecurity and loss of life. So, an area that should be a bread basket for the region remains totally unoccupied because the land has not been surveyed even as a result of adjudication. Last year, the Government commissioned the Njuri Ncheke elders from nine constituencies of Meru to look at the land disputes. They came up with recommendations that were handed over to the Provincial Commissioner. They were given an undertaking that upon this Government taking office, land survey teams would be sent there so that adjudication process can begin and people can get their title deeds. To us, the local community has agreed, without coercion, on how to resolve their own 1988 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES July 22, 2008 internal boundary disputes. I am asking the Minister to urgently attend to this matter so that the lower zones of Imenti District of Meru and Tharaka can live in peace and start developing their own land as a result of getting title deeds from the Government. As I said, I do support the Minister. We must do something serious regarding land ownership in this country. We cannot have a situation where a person holding a leasehold of either 99 or 999 years can, without developing that piece of land, approach a lands office and get a conversion to freehold lease, almost for free, when that person has not developed that piece of land for the many years that he has occupied it. We would like a situation where the Land Control Boards are given broad powers in order to make recommendations that are binding. We see today the Land Control Board in every district in this country can make recommendations which can be ignored because influence will be used in the Appeals Board at the provincial level and decisions will be reversed. So, the work of Land Control Boards in the districts remains totally meaningless. The same applies to the Land Tribunals that look into disputes involving land. Some of them do very good jobs, but, again, because of lack of clear-cut guidelines in the law, we have tremendously good work being done by these tribunals, which are set aside on orders of jurisdiction of the High Court, without looking at the implications of removing disputes from the local people and taking it to another jurisdiction of the Statutes Law, and then giving the Statutes laws appellate jurisdictions over these local authorities. Then the decisions that are made totally contradict the original purpose. We must rethink the purpose of the land tribunals and land control boards. The Minister for Lands is in charge of all land. Trust land is being held by the county councils. Councillors give out land as if it is gifts to their brothers, cousins or friends in the most under-hand methods. We need a Minister for Lands who is responsible for issuing titles even under Trust Lands Act; to move in so that large tracts of land are not grabbed by people in Government. An example of this is the killing of cotton production in the greater Meru District. We have the largest ginnery in this country in my constituency. It also served the entire region, including the lower zones of Meru. One influential person occupying the position of Cabinet Minister, approached the Head of State of this country and said that the Meru people wished to be given an opportunity to purchase it. It was purchased by a private company owned by one person and his family. Large tracts of land that used to grow cotton were transferred to an individual overnight. We need intervention on the part of the Government. I am glad that we have a reform and fair-minded Minister who can---"
}