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{
    "id": 236982,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/236982/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 263,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Balala",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 9,
        "legal_name": "Najib Mohamed Balala",
        "slug": "najib-balala"
    },
    "content": "I think the performance track record of those individuals will be a good testimony to the people who elected them or put them in public positions to say that they have failed the nation. That is not the point. I was not only talking about individuals but a system in the Ministry of Lands that was not working. It was a land policy from the colonial government to this independent Government that has made us not solve the issue of land not only in Coast Province but in the whole country. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, there are people who own land legally by purchasing it in the past and in such cases their properties should be respected. If that property is repossessed 3304 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES November 1, 2006 by the Government, it should pay them compensation. I agree with Prof. Anyang'-Nyong'o that if one is an absentee landlord it does not necessarily mean that he is not there physically. It could mean that he has not developed that land. The problem of squatters is mainly shelter than that of acquisition of land. You can own land but not be able to develop it. We have quite a number of Kenyans in this country who own large tracts of land but they have not developed them. What is the Government doing about repossessing those pieces of land and giving them to people who can develop them? Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, in Mvita Constituency there are people who own land legally, have not developed it, but they have allowed people to build the so-called Swahili houses and collect monthly rent. It is high time those landlords were given ultimatums to sell the property to the people who have built and invested on that land at the current Government rates. Since these people have paid rent to these landlords all these years they have lived, therefore, paid for the land they live on. The land is not big. It is just 40 by 50 feet. It is not even a quarter of an acre. It is just the size of the building and these are semi-permanent buildings. These shelters actually give dignity to these people. We realize that there was a lot of allocation of land to politically-correct people who came to power. That culture has been there that when you are in power you allocate land to people who are closer to you, your tribesmen or politically-correct people. Let the Government tell us the people who have been allocated land in the last 40 years. Today, they call themselves wealthy and rich while they have been allocated public land. They use that land as a collateral for bank loans and they do not develop it. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Finance Act has to be amended so that public land does not become security. We have seen people grabbing markets, road reserves, toilets which they use for collateral for their business; they do not develop this land. We need to address this issue. We have not done any census to establish the genuine squatters and immigrants. I agree with Mr. Khamisi that we need an Act to look into this issue urgently. Mr. Khamisi talked of 3,000 hectares of Government land. Why does the Government not start from there? This land should be demarcated and allocated to people who are able to develop it and those who are genuinely supposed to get it. It should not be allocated to just anybody and friends. It is important to change this mentality of Kenyans who think that owning land sentimentally is everything. They should own land to develop it and make it productive for the sake of this country. This is more important than just owning land for the sake of it. You can have land and be a poor man because you do not have the resources to develop it. Addressing this issue of land is not as simple as coming here to debate. It can be taken academically as Prof. Anyang'-Nyong'o has said here. We can take it politically for the sake of votes. If we do not address it in the proper manner of addressing the social problem of the time bomb that we have in this country, it will be a disaster. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I believe there is a problem that needs to be solved because it is all over Coast Province. I support this Motion."
}