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{
    "id": 627651,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/627651/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 199,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Okoth",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 12482,
        "legal_name": "Kenneth Odhiambo Okoth",
        "slug": "kenneth-odhiambo-okoth"
    },
    "content": "When I look at this Bill, I go back first to the Constitution which talks about community land very clearly. The Constitution states that community land shall vest in and be held by communities identified on the basis of ethnicity, culture or similar community of interest. That is very important. The answer might be here to what many colleagues have asked on the definition of “community”. We should go back and see the angle that the framers and authors of our Constitution were going for on the basis of ethnicity. My argument and thought will be to try and persuade this House to restrict the definition of “community” in a serious and clear way to the identified and well known ethnic communities of Kenya. The Bill talks about the definition of “community” beyond what community land is described in the Constitution. It talks about a community being an organised group of users of community land who are citizens of Kenya and share any of the following attributes:- Common ancestry, similar culture, socio-economic or other common interest and geographical or ecological space. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, there is one risky part of that definition that I would urge to be taken away. When you look at part (c) on socio-economic or other common interest, you cannot equate people who are clearly identified by a common ancestry such as the Maasai, Turkana, Nubi, Luo or the Digos to alumni of Alliance High School, Kenya High School or the Kenya Golf Association. Those are communities of common interests. Can we equate them to the same interests in community land as we would the Maasai, Turkana, Samburu, Luo or the Nubi or any other ethnic community of Kenya? I do not think so. Part (c) needs to be taken out in this definition that tends to stretch and broaden it a little bit too much for comfort. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, the issue of community members registering interests is a matter that is very important. As we go to the Third Reading Stage and make final amendments, we should put in a clear definition of the community to include women who are born in the community or those that are married into the community. In many cultures, women do not own land and if this is not clearly addressed, they may lose out on the benefits of community land. There is a section of this Bill that talks about community assemblies to be put together to decide how land will be governed, dispossessed or its usage changed. When we look at the gender aspect, our culture and history, that is a very risky proposition unless we include here some principles of our Constitution; the principles of equality and equity, that women born into a community, girls, daughters, women who have settled there and those who have been married into the community benefit the same as men and have a equal voice when it comes to community land."
}