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{
    "id": 710839,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/710839/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 372,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Okoth",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 12482,
        "legal_name": "Kenneth Odhiambo Okoth",
        "slug": "kenneth-odhiambo-okoth"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I am happy to rise and give support to the Report of the Committee and thank the members for their dedication. The Report raises a couple of very salient issues about land management in this country. We had a vision in the Constitution about how land management in this country would be done, the responsibilities of the Ministry, the responsibilities of NLC, and the responsibilities of the county governments. This Report indicates to us that we still have not figured it out properly. The NLC is attempting to take too much responsibility and yet claiming that documents are being held by the Ministry and they do not have access to them. The Ministry is refusing to engage fully with the Commission, private developers. Private interests claiming Government land. To me, the biggest set of issues is that it is an invitation, a challenge and a responsibility for us as the 11th Parliament to engage, through this Committee and the Departmental Committee on Justice and Legal Affairs, to make proper proposals that will really streamline the lands sector. We saw recently at the State House summit that heads of the different agencies which manage land issues were talking very positively that everything is taken care of, but the rosy pictures they were painting are far from reality in our own county here. I am sure it reflects even in Kilifi County. Poor people living on what is Government land are considered squatters in places like Kibra. And there is no proper engagement despite the fact we already have a Community Land Act and the Land Laws (Amendment) Act with very clear guidelines and standards on resettlement and evictions. There are people threatened to be evicted in Kibra, minimum 5,000 families, 20,000 people affected because the Kenya Urban Roads Authority wants to build a road from Yaya Centre in Kilimani, Dagoretti North Constituency, to Langata Constituency, to pass through Kibra where the poorest people live. Where the people live is where they have the right to worship. Their mosques and churches will be affected. They have a right to education. The schools there will be affected. They have a right to healthcare. The small clinics that serve their interests there will be affected. We talk about the youth, radicalisation, the rights of women and the rights of everybody in this country, including minorities. This is where people make their livelihoods through small business, whether they are selling roasted maize or sukuma wiki or whatever small businesses they are doing. They are being threatened and no one stands up to protect the rights of these people and that land on which the Ministry wants to build a road across Kibra and take away the livelihoods, homes, places of worship, businesses and schools of these people. In fact, even for political rights in this same place, they have got four polling centres. There are some non-formal schools there that are used as polling centres. The Ministry is threatening to build a road and they have a contractor on site. 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."
}