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{
    "id": 710823,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/710823/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 356,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Kihagi",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2481,
        "legal_name": "John Karanja Kihagi",
        "slug": "john-karanja-kihagi"
    },
    "content": "THAT, this House adopts the Report of the Departmental Committee on Lands on investigation into the ownership of Mombasa Cement Limited Land in Kilifi County, laid on the Table of the House on Tuesday, 24th November, 2015. Hon. Speaker, this is a report that the Committee labored on to prepare having been brought to its notice by the Hon. Member of Kilifi North, Hon. Mong’aro that there were serious issues regarding the ownership of land by Mombasa Cement in Kilifi County. The Committee invited witnesses, principally the Cabinet secretary (CS) for Lands and also the National Land Commission (NLC) to shed light on the ownership documents as presented by the Hon. Mung’aro. We also invited other witnesses especially the company in question to shed light as to how it came to own some of the parcels of land that were in question. The Committee further visited the ground and met with the people of the local community including county government officials who also shed light as to the issue of ownership of the land. Within these deliberations, the Committee observed quite a number of issues that we would wish the House to agree with us. First, from the presentation of the CS, it was clear that LR. No. MN/3/289 and LR No. MN/3/290 have been public land for quite a long time but these have sequentially over time been encumbered by private individuals who have over the time amalgamated, subdivided and changed user illegally to an extent where we can say these fictitious transactions on this land have led to disenfranchisement of the individuals of public land. We also invited the Managing Director of Mombasa Cement for quite a number of times in fact, a total of seven times and the company only honoured three summons. The Managing Director refused to come in person sending officers including lawyers who were not in a position to shed clear light warranting the Committee in most cases to postpone its meeting. They admitted that it was not clear how they came into ownership of most of this land. In most cases they would also request for time and we would agree with them but even as they did that they never gave clear documents to prove to the Committee that they acquired this land legally. The Ministry of Land, Housing and Urban Development and the National Land Commission, through the documents that they presented also proved to us that the land which is purported to belong to Mombasa Cement is a subdivision of a land that was never registered by the current land registry. So, the land which they claim they own came out of a parcel of land that was never registered in the current register. There are no documents to show clear chronology. Land ownership and transactions are done in a very chronological manner such that you can clearly follow which parcel of land led to which parcel of land. For instance plot No. 291/1 is shown to have been born out of plot No. 4391. The question begs, how can a higher number give birth to a lower number? The Committee found this to be quite an irregularity. Also, there was something fictitious and very suspicious in the way the Chairman of the NLC presented evidence. It was clear that the Chairman of the NLC had written to the County Government of Kilifi telling them that the parcel of land was owned by Mombasa Cement, but when the Chairman was asked where he got this information from, he clearly told us that he could not get the documents because the CS for Lands had 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."
}