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{
    "id": 721780,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/721780/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 408,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Ichung’wah",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1835,
        "legal_name": "Anthony Kimani Ichung'Wah",
        "slug": "anthony-kimani-ichungwah"
    },
    "content": "The most important is the issue of pensioners’ funds being used to offer services to private land owners since the land in Tassia has already changed hands. The new owners are benefiting unfairly in terms of having the facilities within the land they have occupied being improved at the expense of the pensioners. It worries me that two years down the line, the NSSF has not fully recovered the cost of the infrastructural development at Tassia II despite the promise they had made to the Committee. The NSSF is yet to collect all the funds from the people who purport to have bought the plots in Tassia. Therefore, it is important that when people commit Government funds to projects, they are sure of how they will recover the money from the beneficiaries of the project. It is a fact that the contractors who implemented the project have already been paid using pensioners’ money with the hope that the money would be recovered. There is the value of money in time. Therefore, having spent taxpayers’ money, the NSSF had the obligation of making sure that they collected all the debts due from individual plot owners. Many of them are not squatters as pointed out. These are very rich squatters. It is a fact that there are even sitting and former Members of Parliament who purported to have been squatters on the land in Tassia. On the said land, there are very expensive high rise buildings. Therefore, the occupants of that land are capable of paying. I would, therefore, urge the NSSF and other Government parastatals to make sure that when they spend public money, they fully recover it if it was intended for the benefit of either pensioners or the public. The issue of people occupying Government land is not unique to the NSSF. Last week, the Committee had a tour of the Kenya Pipeline and we were shocked to find out that some squatters had occupied over four acres of land belonging to the company just next to the Kipevu Pump Station. That area is of vital national security because it has fuel lines from the storage tanks running right to the port. It is actually Pump Station Number One. We found squatters just next to the pump and the fuel tanks. I am even afraid of speaking about our fears in public. However, the issue of squatters occupying public land is very worrying. This problem does not just affect land belonging to parastatals. It is an issue that affects forest reserves across the country as well. About two weeks ago, I had a huge fight with people who purported to be squatters in my constituency. They are wealthy people who tried to occupy Thogoto Forest land, which belongs to the Kenya Forest Service (KFS). This afternoon, I saw land grabbers fighting in a Thika court. I am sure that members of one of the groups have been incarcerated in Milimani by police officers from the Directorate of Criminal Investigation. This was a case involving two groups of land grabbers who were fighting over public land that belonged to the people of Kiamburi Village in Kikuyu. The land was once part of Thogoto Forest. The KFS had been watching as all these things unfolded. With those remarks, I second the Motion. I urge all the parastatal managements in the country to make sure that public assets bestowed on them are safeguarded from wealthy people who purport to be squatters. Thank you."
}