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{
    "id": 633021,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/633021/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 459,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Wamunyinyi",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 291,
        "legal_name": "Athanas Misiko Wafula Wamunyinyi",
        "slug": "athanas-wamunyinyi"
    },
    "content": "Thank you very much, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker for giving me the opportunity to contribute to this Bill. This is a very important Bill, which seeks to introduce various amendments to the NLC Act, the Land Registration Act and the Land Act. These Acts were established to ensure the implementation of Articles 67 and 68 of the Constitution. The Bill also intends to remove ambiguities and confusion that has been caused between Government offices and departments like the NLC on one hand and the Ministry of Land, Housing and Urban Development on the other. The public has been a victim. Therefore, it is important to harmonise these laws to ensure their effective implementation and proper land administration, so that the offices can implement their mandate without fighting each other. In the process, this Bill creates offices and functions. At the county level, registration of units and the procedures of establishing them are clearly provided for in the Act through the Ministry. The worry is that more functions are being taken away from the NLC and given to the Cabinet Secretary. Kenyans who penned the Constitution understood the problems that we had in the past. The purpose of vesting more powers in the NLC was to deal with past problems. The Commission would have operated independently without undue interference. It is worrying that more of its powers are being taken away. We have problems in land administration in terms of land grabbing, corruption in the Ministries, hunger for land and quick money, derived from the sale of grabbed land. This cannot only be dealt with by making good laws, but also by addressing the culture of corruption. There have to be strong mechanisms to deal with these issues in the offices that are being established by this law. I have noted what Hon. John Serut alluded to in Clause 108, which seeks to amend Section 159 of the Land Act. It states that the Cabinet Secretary shall issue guidelines, not consistent with the Act, on his determination of land holding among married couples and family members. Some of these aspects have been covered under the Matrimonial Act, which has already been enacted. Determination of land holding by non-citizens is clear. In some countries, non-citizens are not allowed to own land. In fact, in some countries, even citizens themselves do not own land. It belongs to the State. The State leases it out to its citizens for whatever purposes they want to use it for. I am looking at the provision for minimum and maximum land holding. People already own chunks of land in this country that they do not even use. This Bill is likely to address this, but how is the Cabinet Secretary going to go about it? Some people in this country own land as big as a district or a province which they do not even use. The Bill states that the minimum and maximum land holding acreages shall be as prescribed by the Cabinet Secretary. Experts and the public will be looking at how best to go about this. The Cabinet Secretary has vested powers to deal with this issue. This is important and we must give it some attention. We have to make sure that Kenyans who do not own land are given land. We have public land in this country. There is land that can be given out to people who are encroaching on forests. Available land as well as landless people should be determined. Let us know who the landless people in this country are. Where is public land or land owned by the State? This should not be forests, which have been encroached into by some people. It should be 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."
}