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"id": 641821,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/641821/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Hon. Chea",
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"speaker": {
"id": 1694,
"legal_name": "Mwinga Gunga Chea",
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"content": "adequately addressed. But you realise there are so many institutions in this country, including hospitals and schools, that stand to be demolished any time. For instance, there is an area in my constituency where a title deed was issued in a record 30 minutes. The effect of that title deed, which is fraudulent, is that a school and a hospital stand to be demolished because of the interests of an individual. As we look at all these issues, we must appreciate the fact that we have had land registrars who have been very corrupt and who have messed up our land registries. This is a country where files have been missing from the land registries. This is a country where entries have been altered in various land registers. If you look at history, then you will realize that there is a serious need to have a law to take care of those injustices so that, eventually, people can have their land and secure it well. If you look at the Memorandum of Objects and Reasons, it is very clear that the drafters of the Bill begin with a mischief. It speaks to limiting the mandate of the National Land Commission (NLC). We are all aware that the enactment of the Constitution of Kenya, 2010 brought in independent commissions, one of which is the NLC, which is established under Article 67. The functions of NLC as seen in Article 67 are basically the management of public land for both the national and county governments. I keep on wondering whether we now have a law whose primary objective is to limit the mandate of NLC. The question is: Are we trying to amend the Constitution? I appreciate and, indeed, I will always advocate a situation where every department is looked at in terms of checks and balances. I do not expect the NLC to work in isolation. Neither do I expect the Ministry of Lands nor the county governments to work in isolation. There must be checks and balances. But as we do this, we must respect the roles that have been given to those commissions by the Constitution. So, with these amendments, there is an attempt to amend the Constitution and dilute the powers of NLC. For that reason, I oppose the Bill. In Clause 7 of this Bill, we are seeing a situation where we are likely to lose history in terms of land ownership. There is a proposal to empower the registrar of lands to delete entries or open new registers. It is important that those who do conveyance should, at all times, get the history of a parcel of land so that we know how land passes over from one person to another. But as it is now, that may be quite tricky. What appears interesting in this Bill is the question of evictions. My only problem with the provisions on evictions is: What happened to the Resettlement Bill? The biggest problem in this country, particularly in regions at the Coast, has been the question of squatters. If we will only be addressing ourselves to the question of having an eviction that is done in a humane manner, what happens after that? We have seen situations where people have been evicted in a manner that is not humane, but what is the solution to that? I would have expected that this Bill would provide long-lasting solutions to this problem, but that is not the case. We want to appreciate the fact that the present Government has struggled to issue title deeds in various parts of this country, the Coast region being one of them. But even if those titles are issued and we are not sure of the people who manage our land registries, then you can be sure we are headed to trouble. As has been proposed by Hon. Gichigi, and I believe that should be the Chair’s view, we should look at this Bill and propose amendments so that, at the end of the day, this Bill can be a progressive one as envisaged under Article 68 of the Constitution. At the end of the day, we can have laws that will ensure that this country moves forward; laws that will ensure 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."
}