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{
    "id": 188775,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/188775/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 214,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Maj-Gen. Nkaisserry",
    "speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister, Ministry of State for Defence",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 192,
        "legal_name": "Joseph Kasaine Ole Nkaissery",
        "slug": "joseph-nkaissery"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Ministry is aware of this position, but it is still pushing, like the British did, to ensure that the owners of land, the Maasai, do not get back their land. We want to be included in development of land policy in this country. It is very important. Like any other Ministry and Government Department, the Ministry of Lands is full of corruption. I am glad that the Minister is here. I am 100 per cent sure that he will push for the situation to be rectified. If you request for a Government land surveyor to carry out survey of a land parcel, he will ask for money which the citizens cannot afford. This is very unacceptable. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, land boards and land tribunals are centres of corruption. Therefore, we want the Minister to immediately remedy the situation. I am not very sure whether the technocrats at the Ministry's headquarters are also part of the whole system of corruption. So, in order for us to be able to deal with the issue of land, we must sack the corrupt people in the Ministry of Lands. This is the right time for the Minister to get rid of corrupt people from the Ministry. When you look at the Mt. Elgon issue and the Chebyuk settlement, who is responsible for that mess? It is the Government of the Republic of Kenya. They settled people there and later on moved the same people away and brought them back again. We would like the Ministry to correct that. Regarding the issue of Mau Forest or the Mau ecosystem, it is non-negotiable. That is a very important ecosystem for this country. Those people who were settled there, the Government must make sure that it looks for a place to resettle them. It is unacceptable for people to politicise a situation like the Mau ecosystem. That ecosystem must be preserved for the posterity of this country. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the problem with the Ministry of Lands is lack of a land policy. A land policy needs to be put in place through this Parliament. Before a new Constitution is put in place, a land policy should be articulated and legislated for. The legal framework for the management of the land resource should be put in place. We are now burning charcoal all over the place. We do not know whether this issue belongs to the Ministry Lands, the Ministry of Environment and Mineral Resource or the Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife. I think we need to co-ordinate all this because that is a part of land resource. Obviously, the other thing is obsolete land laws. We have leases for 999 years. Just imagine 999 years! A muzungu is allowed to own land for 999 years and the Minister is there and he is a lawyer; there are other lawyers but we are not getting this thing right. We want this thing to be 1994 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES July 22, 2008 rectified for the benefit of this nation. What do you do with Kshs2.3 billion for a Ministry like this one? That is a big question! With those few remarks, I support."
}