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"speaker_name": "Mr. Khamisi",
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"content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the problem of landlessness and the problem of absentee landlordism are the same. It is the latter that actually contributed to the former. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, this problem is so serious that it threatens the security of this country. At the very end of the Coast Province, on the Tanzanian side and to the very end on the other side of the Somali border, the problem of absentee landlords is rampant. It has caused so much suffering to the local people in the Coast Province. Presently, we estimate that 80 per cent of the people living at the Coast Province are actually squatters. They are living in a land that is said to belong to Arabs and other individuals who have no physical presence in the area. However, in order to understand this problem, one has to go back to the very early days of British colonialism when the English law was introduced to govern the ownership and transactions of land. The idea of this legislation was to provide settlement to the white settlers. In 1908, the controversial Land Titles Ordinance was passed which meant that all land claims held by the Africans became null and void. It was at this time that the problem of absentee landlordism actually began. This is a problem that threatens the national security of this country. In my own area, even the police stations in Bahari Constituency are on squatter land. Because of that situation, the local people themselves feel very insecure to be left in the hands of people who have no fixed abode in terms of ownership of land. Public institutions, including schools, are also resident on land that belongs to absentee landlords. When we talk about absentee landlords, we are not necessarily talking about the Arabs. We are also talking about neo-landlords; the people who came to the Coast after Independence and grabbed large tracks of land. This action left thousands of people displaced and without proper habitation. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, if there is any injustice that has been done to the people of Coast Province, it was done as a result of this neo-colonialism by people who came because of reasons of politics and patronage and were given large tracks of land to the detriment of the ordinary people. The Government itself owns large tracks of land. In fact, it is the biggest land owner in Coast Province. We see in statistics that out of 615,555 hectares, the Government actually owns over 300,000 hectares. What surprises us is that the Government has not found it fit to distribute this land to the landless to the extent that we have many people who are today living as squatters on Government land. The only reason the Government cannot sub-divide that land and distribute it to the people is because it does not have the resources to do that job. I want to say that, that is a lame excuse. The Government has a responsibility to the people of this country. The Constitution allows people the right to own land. For this Government and the previous one to subject its own citizens to a situation of humiliation and degradation, I think this is very unfair, indeed. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we have had so many commissions. We had commissions during the colonial days. In 1925, we had the East African Commission. In 1929, we had the Agricultural Commission which was also tasked to look at the land problem. In 1933, we had the Kenya Land Commission and also a judicial commission was formed in 1932. In recent years, we have had a Parliamentary Select Committee on Land. We have had the Njonjo Commission and the Ndungu Commission and recommendations have been made on how the Government can settle the landless along the Coast. However, none of these recommendations, sadly to say, have been implemented and people continue to suffer. There has been a lot of documentation on this problem. One of the former hon. Members of this House, Mr. Kihoro, has written extensively about it. He has done many studies and has made recommendations to the Government on how this problem could be solved. It has been recommended, for example, that a register be opened for all those people who claim ownership of land at the Coast Province and that the Office or the Commission of Squatters be established to be able to take account of the number of squatters that are available to date. Unfortunately, the 3296 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES November 1, 2006 Government does not even know how much land is owned by absentee landlords. It does not know the number of squatters that are there at the Coast Province. Basically, the Government is operating blindly. There is no way that the Government can achieve anything if it continues to operate as if it is \"business as usual\". As leaders, we have tried severally to quell tensions within our areas; to stop people from invading land belonging to other people that they believe that it is theirs. However, we cannot continue to do this. How long, as leaders, can we continue to quell these tensions? I think it is the responsibility of the Government to come out and show its commitment to the land issue. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, a few months ago, the President visited the Coast Province. We were told that title deeds were being issued. However, these were not new title deeds. They were old title deeds that had been held in the Ministry and had not been redeemed by the people because of lack of funds. So, we cannot be told that because title deeds are being issued, that the land situation is being solved. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we would like to see the Government going into the areas that are said or purported to belong to absentee landlords, take stock of that land, find a formula - be it legal or otherwise - of ensuring that the land is clean, and then sub-divide it to the people of this country. It is only then that we can confirm that this Government is actually settling squatters. The squatters who were there last year are still there today, regardless of the fact that title deeds have been issued. So, in this case, the two issues - the issuance of title deeds and the solution to the land question - are not related. So, we would like to see a more serious action taken. I am encouraged by the Draft Land Policy that the Government has issued. I am encouraged because, for the first time, I see an attempt by the Government to look seriously into this problem. However, as I said, we have had so many commissions. We do not want the recommendations that are going to come out of this policy to gather dust in Government offices. So, as much as we welcome the initiative of the Government, we are also appealing that this should not be an exercise in futility. It should be an exercise that is serious and in which the Government is committed. This should not be an exercise that is politically inclined. It should not be an exercise meant to enable the Government win votes in next year's general elections but rather, one by which the Government, genuinely, intends to look into the problem of landlessness at the Coast and find a solution. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I have talked about the problem of public institutions. I also want to talk about the inhuman conditions in which the people live. I want to give an example of one area called Bureni in my constituency. The land in that area belongs to a Mzungu absentee landlord. For the last 50 years or so, the people living in that village have not been allowed to even dig pit-latrines. Forty-five years after Independence, those people must go to the bush to answer a call of nature for the simple reason that the owner does not want his land \"defaced\" or interfered with. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would also like to talk about the victimisation and threats of eviction that are continually being perpetrated on the people living on that land by absentee landlords. At this time of the year, when people are supposed to be preparing their land, they are required to pay \"tax\" to the absentee landlords before they are allowed to till the land. This goes on season after season. It is a slavery attitude that this Government has failed to contain. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the District Commissioner or the Provincial Commissioner has severally requested absentee landlords at the Coast to go and register themselves with his office but these people have completely ignored the Government, and the Government has failed to react to these people. So, the impression I have got is that the Government is not committed, and is not able to handle the questions of absentee landlords and landlessness in this country. I would like to applaud hon. Wanyiri Kihoro for the tremendous work he has done on this November 1, 2006 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 3297 issue. He was the Jurist of the Year in 2004 and the sole Counsel to the Presidential Commission of Inquiry into the Illegal and Irregular Allocation of Public Land. Regarding the problem of landlessness in this country, he said as follows:- \"Deprivation and economic insecurity inevitably lead to more crime and it is only right that Kenyans at large brace themselves for this eventuality in the foreseeable future.\" I cannot say it more eloquently; that, this is a security problem which needs to be solved once and for all. With those remarks, I beg to move and request Mr. Mwandawiro to second the Motion."
}