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{
    "id": 625232,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/625232/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 88,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. A. B. Duale",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 15,
        "legal_name": "Aden Bare Duale",
        "slug": "aden-duale"
    },
    "content": "I am sure that each one of us here has certain economic activity unique to the community. For me, land is so crucial that without pasture and water resources the pastoral community will not live. The same applies to the farming and fishing communities. I will now go to the basic summary of the salient features of the proposed legislation. Clause 6 of this Bill provides for the holding in trust of unregistered community land by county governments on behalf of the communities. So, Clause 6 says that county governments, and I am talking about a perception of a good county government, will not sell land. Where a governor and his team are not land grabbers they can be entrusted with community land. I am sure that when we will be dealing with Clause 6, we will be alive to the fact of the kind of county governments we have in Kenya today. Can we give them that holding in trust? I hope that even Chair and the Vice-Chair of the Departmental Committee on Defence and Foreign Relations are here. Barely three months ago, the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) decided to grab, in my constituency, over 3000 acres of land. Hon. Speaker, the Committee Chair should listen because we will bring a petition. You need to relax. Do not defend the KDF. I am the Leader of the Majority Party and so, I am the one to protect the KDF. However, when it comes to the interest of the people I represent, I will say that in Garissa which is my county, the KDF has been allocated a piece of land. We agreed and gave them the piece of land many years ago when I was the Member of Parliament in the last Parliament. However, one morning, they woke up and, with contractors, decided to extend the fence to cover three locations. I have talked to them. They have not gone into Somalia because my constituency is about 300 kilometres away from the Kenya-Somalia border. We are now dealing with that matter and we will solve it. I want the Chair of the Committee and his Vice- Chair, who comes from that county, to know that there are many issues. A governor may say he wants to bring an investor. Yes, we want investors but you cannot bring an investor and then give him or her two million acres of our land. The communities must be involved. Hon. Speaker, you are aware of the story of the oil fields in Turkana where title deeds were owned by people in Upper Hill and the community did not know. This Bill is very critical. Clause 6 is very important. Can we entrust county governments with land? Clause 7 of the Bill gives the procedure for registration of community land. How do you register community land and make sure that registration is above board? Clauses 8 and 9 provide for the development and publication of a comprehensive adjudication programme. They give the procedure. How do you recognise, adjudicate and designate community land within the framework of the Registrar of Lands? I am sure the Chair of the Departmental Committee on Lands and his Committee have involved stakeholders. They will give us their input. Clauses 10 to 13 provide for the registration classes of holding community land. How do you set aside communal or reserve land? Within the community land, we have reserves, land held by the community, community land setting and a piece of land for holding. Clause 14 confirms the validity of the existing customary right of occupancy in community land as equal in status to the right to occupancy under the category of land. There are shrines. There are those who believe that certain places have religious significance. I confirm that I am a very good Muslim, so I do not visit shrines. The only place I visit to worship God is mosque. However, there are communities, and we must respect them, that have shrines in particular forests or land. These places have some significance. For example, Suswa is significant to the Maasai community while the Kaya shrines are significant to the Mijikenda and The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}