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{
    "id": 771172,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/771172/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 178,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. ole Sankok",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13166,
        "legal_name": "David Ole Sankok",
        "slug": "david-ole-sankok"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I support this Bill. It has been overdue. If you walk around our urban centres, you will be shocked to realise that our road reserves and riparian areas have disappeared because of shoddy work by physical planners, whom we need to control. Despite the fact that this Bill may have some areas that need to be amended, it expressly states the penalties for physical planners and the channel they should adhere to in advising the Government and the Cabinet Secretary responsible for land. With time, with our population ever increasing and land ever shrinking, we may find ourselves in a situation where our farmlands just disappear. If we continue that way, we may not feed our population. As you are aware, everybody is coming up with very calculated moves of making quick money by subdividing their land. In this country, one acre produces seven plots. Anybody who can measure using a tape measure, or by counting footsteps, has been taken to be a physical planner and a surveyor. These people have subdivided our farmlands into one-eighth and quarter- acre plots. At the end of the day, because of the increase in population, the land we used to farm on disappears and becomes small towns. Lack of farmland means we have to import foodstuffs. With the control of genetically modified seeds in our country, where will we import food from? Will we import from Uganda or Tanzania – countries which are facing a similar problem? For me, this Bill has come at the right time. We need to control subdivision of our land. We need professionals who can advise. Part II of the Bill deals with physical planning institutions, so that we can have institutions to train our physical planners and give advice to the CS and whoever is concerned with physical planning. Part IV deals with control of physical development. Under Clause 50, the Bill seeks to prohibit or control the use and development of land and buildings in the interest of proper and orderly development of any area. Kenya is no longer orderly because of rogue physical planners and land surveyors. At the moment, in Narok, there is a whole road with a bridge that has been grabbed, courtesy of land surveyors and physical planners. Last week, the Governor took a bold step because the elections are over. He decided to give the road back to the public. That road is now available for use by members of the public. All of us in Narok were shocked that there was a road that was totally blocked. It was like a bypass for Narok County. That is why we have been facing the issue of floods in Narok County because of wrong subdivision. Our riparian land has been taken up in Narok and has caused a lot of problems. We have had conflicts after subdivision of the land into eighths of an acre. We now lack access roads for emergency services like fire services. People have subdivided their land so that they can have many plots because there is no order in physical planning. At the end, one may have decided to plan without considering where the road was. We have dead ends of roads and sewage systems because everybody plans according to how they think fit. We need to centralise. Unlike the Member who said physical planning should be devolved, we need to centralise this development so that we know at which order we can control our population. This is because, from the central Government, it will know when it needs a particular farmland and irrigate fertile lands that are dry so as to produce food for our population. I support."
}