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{
    "id": 228486,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/228486/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 180,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Mwenje",
    "speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister for Co-operative Development and Marketing",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 257,
        "legal_name": "David S. Kamau Mwenje",
        "slug": "david-mwenje"
    },
    "content": "I think the hon. Member just wants to waste my time! I have very little time! Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I have a very persistent problem in my constituency. I have talked about it for many years. The garbage of this City is dumped at Dandora. My people in Dandora Phase II are dying because of that garbage. I have appealed to the Minister for Local Government and the Minister for Environment and Natural Resources, but nothing has been done. What remains now is for me to tell my people to stop that dumping by force. Although I am in the Government, I will be forced to stop any further dumping of garbage in Dandora. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, let people be warned that, from now henceforth, I am prepared to stop any more dumping of garbage in Dandora. Garbage is collected from all over the City and dumped in Dandora. My people are dying from diseases caused by garbage. They dump all sorts of garbage such as syringes, dead dogs--- Name it! There are about 5,000 scavenger birds. There are also about 5,000 boys. That has got to stop. I will now use force to stop that, if the Ministers concerned and Nairobi City Council do not come to my aid. I also want to appeal to the President to intervene in that matter. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we have a problem of squatters in the City. We have many squatters living in the slums. They live in very pathetic conditions. They do not even know who are the owners of the land they reside on. They are frequently evicted from those parcels of land. It is time for the Minister for Lands to intervene in that matter. We should issue letters of allotment to those squatters. The law stipulates that, once you have lived on a piece of land for 12 304 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES April 3, 2007 years, that land belongs to you. We must look after the squatters of this country, particularly in Nairobi. We have very many squatters. We have built schools for them and provided them with water using the Constituencies Development Fund (CDF) money. We have also provided them with big street lights to light up the slums. Squatters deserve development because they are also taxpayers like everybody else. We are also constructing for them roads using the District Roads Committees (DRCs) and CDF money. The only thing remaining is to issue them with letters of allotment to show that, that land belong to them. That way, we shall deal with the colonial masters, Asians and those who grabbed that land, irrespective of whether there were people living on it or not. The Commissioner of Lands should not declare that those parcels of land are vacant because those shanty houses are never shown on the maps. It is high time for shanties to be indicated on our maps. That way, the squatters can be given letters of allotment. They are the majority in this City. About 70 per cent of the population of Nairobi resides in the slums. We should issue them with letters of allotment to confirm that they own those parcels of land. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I am happy that security is improving. But I also want to say that we should not arrest our people haphazardly on the pretence of looking for members of the Mungiki sect. While I do not agree with the Mungiki at all, I am against haphazard arrests. There are incidents where people who are looking for jobs are arrested. I urge the Commissioner of Police and the Minister of State for Adminstration and National Security to stop haphazard arrests on the pretence of arresting those who belong to banned groups. I am happy that security has improved. But it is also important to equip all the police stations, including those which have been built using the CDF money. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}