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{
    "id": 584603,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/584603/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 222,
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    "content": "task. This is because the majority of land is in a few hands of the rich people. Most of them are the politically-correct. They acquired the land at the expense of the poor person. The poor people are the majority in this country, but they live in slums. For example, in my area, we have a slum where somebody lives on less than a point of an acre. There is no space for him to even build a toilet or bury the dead. This piece of legislation is very important as it will help the country to move forward and also help us to address the issue of large tracts of land which are in the hands of a few. Majority of Kenyans have no land. We have the “haves” and the “have nots”. The have nots live in abject poverty. These are the squatters I am talking about. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, in my county, we have about six or seven large tracts of land without title deeds. This land was given to people over 50 years ago. It is sad that someone has lived on that land for more than 50 years, but he does not have a title deed. This is the place where they have known to be their home. The Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development has issued title deeds to the rich who in turn evict these poor people from their parcels of land. Some time, they burn their houses as they evict them. We have had a case like that of Mengo Farm in Trans-Nzoia County, where somebody went and acquired a title deed and came in the night with a lorry full of people and tried to evict the occupants of the land. The occupants of that farm countered that eviction attempt and as a result, seven people died. That was not the first time. That is not the only farm where people are targeting the poor in Trans-Nzoia County. This is happening because I think the white settlers who lived there left in hurry; people moved into those farms and they have lived there for many years. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, when someone lives on a farm that has no title deed for more than twelve years and you have had your kids there, I think by legislation, that person should be given one or two acres. The trend that we are now witnessing is that our people are being evicted and then that chunk of land is taken by one person who has acquired it by getting the title deed from Nairobi without the people on the ground knowing anything about it. I think that should also be made very clear in this piece of legislation because Trans-Nzoia County is under threat. We also had this incident in Chepchoina Farm where people were also allocated land and they were not issued with title deeds. After five or ten years, they were evicted. This needs to be corrected so that when someone is allocated land, you have your title deed which is your security, and you can even take it to the bank and borrow money to advance. I also thank the Mover of the Motion because this piece of legislation will correct the iniquities which have been created between communities. Community land brings a lot of conflict. You will find people fighting over it because there are no boundaries. Someone just comes and declares that that is his or her piece of land and then communities fight and kill each other. If we have clear legislation, then nobody will interfere with somebody’s piece of land. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, this is a very good legislation. It is constitutional and if implemented, we will correct many things and also bring people to be somewhere where they can also benefit from this land that people were given for free. For them, even if it is a fraction of an acre, you have to pay for it. A fraction of an acre in Kitale costs about Kshs80,000. These people do not have any land and most of them live in rented The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}