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{
    "id": 633007,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/633007/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 445,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Katoo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 199,
        "legal_name": "Judah Katoo Ole-Metito",
        "slug": "judah-ole-metito"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, for giving me this opportunity. I somehow agree with the Member for Narok North on some of the issues he has raised. In its Memorandum and Objects, this Bill says that it is amending several Bills that were passed by the last Parliament, including the Land Registration Act, the National Land Commission Act, and the Land Act. The three Acts of Parliament were passed in 2012. All of them had constitutional timelines. They were passed in a hurry because those were the sunset days of the Tenth Parliament. It was later on realised that there were some inconsistencies in those Bills, including over-lapping mandates. The Bill before us has no constitutional timeline. It is just trying to rectify the inconsistencies contained in those three Bills. Let us support the Bill at its current legislative stage. I am sure that the Departmental Committee on Lands as well as individual Hon. Members will come up with more amendments to refine it. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, I would like to mention some of the inconsistencies that are contained in the three Acts of Parliament. Hon. Members will remember the National Land Commission (NLC) at one time had a lot of clashes with the Ministry responsible for land matters. At one point in time, they had to go to the highest court in the land – the Supreme Court – to seek an advisory opinion on the mandates of each of the two offices. The Supreme Court so advised. This shows that there is need for trying to come up with a cleaner and a consistent law in accordance with Articles 60-68 of the Constitution - save for Article 63. This House passed the Community Land Bill last week to address it. The three Acts mostly talk of establishment of land registries at both the national and county government levels. We modernise and automate our land registries using state-of-the-art- technology to avoid cases of files getting lost. Sometimes, there is mis-match of information even in the same files. This is the right time for the Ministry, the NLC and the county governments to modernise their land registries for effective and efficient running of land matters. I am happy about the amendment to Section 6 of the Land Registration Act to squarely put the function of land registration under the Ministry. Even the Community Land Bill that was passed last week clearly gives this role to the Ministry, as opposed to the NLC especially in terms of community land, unregistered land and trust land. These amendments are cleaning up those inconsistencies by making land registration a national Government function under the Ministry of Lands. There is a proposal for insertion of Section 6(a) in the Land Registration Act, pursuant to Article 67(2) of the Constitution. The insertion is trying to address the issue of involvement, engagement and awareness-creation amongst all stakeholders of land matters, before calling for adjudication or registration of any piece of land. These amendments are good because they are trying to ensure that everybody who has an interest in a piece of land is made aware before that piece of land is registered. Sometimes, people find that their parcels of land have been transferred to other people without their knowledge. This insertion will ensure that every stakeholder in a piece of land is made aware before registration of such land is done. There is also an amendment which seeks to remove the Public Service Commission (PSC) from staffing the registries at both the national or county government levels. The PSC is not involved directly. It is the role of the relevant Ministry to oversee deployment of staff and management of resources within their devolved units. The Ministry will be deploying registrars to the county governments or to any of their devolved units. The officers are already in their 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."
}