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{
    "id": 763145,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/763145/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 71,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Dr.) Pukose",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1458,
        "legal_name": "Robert Pukose",
        "slug": "robert-pukose"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Hon. Speaker. From the outset, I want to support this policy paper. Our country has not had a national land policy in place. We know that in the past attempts have been made to develop some land policy, beginning with the Swynnerton Plan of 1954. Through this plan, the white settlers were looking for ways of managing land in relation to conflicts. The Swynnerton Plan resulted in a lot of people being displaced. My community was largely affected. Some people were displaced to Uganda while others ended up relocating into the forest. Up to now, the effects of that plan are being felt. After we attained Independence, the successive regimes did not put in place a good land policy. During the reigns of Mzee Jomo Kenyatta and Daniel arap Moi, many people who were living in forests within the Mau Escarpment and Mount Elgon were evicted haphazardly. The ministries responsible for forests would gazette people’s farms as Government forestlands and deploy security agents to burn down their homesteads and destroy their property. This has had very serious consequences on the lives of the victims of such atrocities. We have heard of the 1978 Kaptagat incident, when the Provincial Administration evicted people from Timboroa and other areas within Tran Nzoia. Those were actions which were not being guided by any policy. They were more of administrative decisions, which were punitive. Even as we come up with a land policy, we should appreciate that the land issue is highly emotive in this country. It engulfs economic, social and cultural issues. As we prepare ourselves for the repeat presidential elections on 26th October – I am being told that Baba is considering coming back to the ballot, which is a welcome move – Kenyans want stability. Everybody wants to continue with his day-to-day activity. Being in a continuous election process is not good for the country. There is no investor who would invest in land whose use is not well guided by policy. That is why this is a big challenge for this Parliament. We expect our colleagues from the other side of the House to be present in this House so that we can have a vibrant way of debating this National Land Policy. We need to look at how this land policy will impact on our society and electorate. I think they are having their Parliamentary Group Meeting at Uhuru Park. We hope that out of that meeting with the public, they will also come, so that we can proceed to adopt this very important policy that will impact on our country. I do not want to add much because this is a very important policy. It will be good to give others an opportunity to contribute to the policy. With those remarks, I support."
}