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"id": 223455,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/223455/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Prof. Anyang'-Nyong'o",
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"speaker": {
"id": 193,
"legal_name": "Peter Anyang' Nyong'o",
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"content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I cannot compete with the Assistant Minister for Water and Irrigation who should be in a marketplace rather than Parliament! There he can talk freely without disturbing me. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, if the Government charges these institutions annual land rates, they can be paid to local authorities. The rationale behind the institutions paying land rates is that local authorities can then get the revenue to serve these institutions with other services. These include, maintaining roads, supplying water, inspecting health facilities and so on. However, local authorities cannot charge land rates if the institutions do not have legal entitlements to the land they occupy. Therefore, I really think that this Motion is very timely, useful and rational. It is something that the Ministry should have thought of a long time ago. It would be used to avoid the mischief of land grabbers taking land belonging to public institutions and secondly, the Government not having any source of revenue from the pubic institutions using the land. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the second thing that should follow is that once an institution is paying land rates for the land it occupies, it will be challenged to get some revenue from the physical facilities they develop in these institutions. For example, there is absolutely no reason why schools cannot be allowed to charge individuals and communities who use their facilities for meeting, weddings and whatever. At the moment, many public facilities like schools and churches, although churches are private institutions, are used by the public without generating any revenue for those institutions. But once the institutions know that they are paying a price for having those facilities sit on some land, they will have the challenge and the incentive to get some revenue by renting their facilities to individuals and groups that use those facilities when schools are not on. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, all these are ways and means by which we can use our institutions, and cost-effectively, rather than let hon. Members introduce Motions like this one which are then passed ceremonially and then the Government does not get the ideas and implement them. It would be much better - since my grey-haired Minister for Lands is here, my dear friend Prof. Kibwana, - to put that hair to use by making sure that these proposals here are implemented immediately. That would be good for the Government and would protect our institutions' land from being grabbed. I will give an example: We once went to a county council in Wajir, and found that the land on which the county council hall sits, had actually been grabbed and people had acquired title deeds. There were two title deeds that had been acquired, not by the county council, but by other people. The hall was sitting on two different title deeds. If the right for those title deeds were implemented, the hall could be sub-divided into two; one half going this way and the other half that 1036 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES May 2, 2007 way; whereas, in reality, those title deeds combined together belong to the county council. But the county council had never seen it necessary to acquire the title deed for their own land. This is how serious it is in most institutions. Then we went to Kitale where some research institution had a good chunk of its land taken by Government officials. The problem is that, that institution did not have a title deed to its own land. I think this is a very serious matter. So, rather than delay the process by imposing heavy acquisition fees, speed up the process by abolishing the fees and establishing land rates which will give the Government even more revenue over a period of time. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, that reminds me that even with regard to ordinary title deeds at home, this old crisis of lack of title deeds is because of these prohibitive entry fees for acquiring a title deed. I remember when I acquired my own title deed several years ago, it was free. I only paid negligible fees because the Government had a window of opportunity, that if you get your title deed within this time, you get it for free. I got mine for free many years ago. But for now, when people are trying to get their title deeds from the Ministry of Lands, they have to pay fees which is prohibitive considering their income. It is much better to allow them to have the title deed, make productive use of the land and recover whatever fees they want from their revenue or from their earnings from the land. That makes a lot of economic sense. Therefore, I think this is one good Motion that has come to this House and should be implemented. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the other most important thing is the whole issue of double accounting by the Government; the whole idea of charging land rates and land rent. I have never understood where this thing came from. If you own land in Nairobi, for example, you will receive two bills every year; one called land rates and the other one called land rent. I do not know from whom we are renting the land and whom we are paying the rates. Is it the same Government or two different Governments? Quite often the penalty for paying late, either the land rates or the land rent, is quite prohibitive. Given the fact that physical facilities take long to develop to certain land and properties, especially in a town like Nairobi, people who buy land with the idea that they will develop it in future, the future sometimes takes very long because you find that a road going to that particular facility, for example, in Nairobi the roads are supposed to be built by the Nairobi City Council (NCC) and it takes ages to be built. You find that you continue paying land rates and land rent without getting revenue from your land. I think the Government should think twice. If we have to promote the productive use of land, let us not penalise land-owners that way. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}