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{
    "id": 643334,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/643334/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 1126,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Mwiru",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 107,
        "legal_name": "Alex Muthengi Mburi Mwiru",
        "slug": "alex-mwiru"
    },
    "content": "I know there are a number of doctors around who can help me in terms of semantics of the word “prescribe.” Article 68 states:- “Parliament shall— (c) enact legislation— (i) to prescribe minimum and maximum land holding acreages in respect of private land.” As a Parliament, we cannot avoid but swim in it. Somehow we have to prescribe wisely and solomonically because at the end of the day this is a matter--- The Hon. Member for Luanda has said it. If we prescribe in Luanda to have half an acre and a quarter an acre in Nairobi, there will be a lot of discrepancies and fights. If one has 100 acres in Luanda and we want to prescribe 10 acres in Luanda, where will the 90 acres go? This is because it was private land. Even if we were to convert the 90 acres to public land, what will the public use it for? So, we are looking at a situation where we can cause chaos through this. This Committee has attempted to do it under Articles 40 and 60 of the Constitution. Article 40 talks about the right to property. It has not prescribed the size and nature of how much property you must hold and yet you have a right to ownership of property. If you were to prescribe one acre to each individual in this country, would we not say that whoever does not have one acre in this country is on the wrong and we are supposed to put him in jail? Those are questions that we have to ask ourselves. Secondly, if you are a partner in a company that owns land in this country and I do not want to use the word “partner” in the context of the Health Bill, and you own 10 per cent of the shares, you are also a partner in company “B” where you own 90 per cent of shares of the land and as an individual you also have some acres of land in this country, would you say that whatever you own in partnership, as a company, should also be counted? This is because a company is also an entity by itself. It can sue and be sued. At the end of the day do we say your directorship in that company is a problem?"
}