{"count":1608389,"next":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/?format=json&page=147600","previous":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/?format=json&page=147598","results":[{"id":1494182,"url":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1494182/?format=json","text_counter":619,"type":"speech","speaker_name":"Molo, UDA","speaker_title":"Hon. Kuria Kimani","speaker":null,"content":" Hon. Temporary Speaker, one of the issues that we were discussing earlier on the absenteeism of Members is that you prepare for one Bill only for it to be stepped down because the Mover is not there. You have to recollect where you were in the other Bill. I rise to support the Land Control Amendment Bill, (National Assembly Bill No. 39 of 2023). This Bill is seeking to replace the Land Registration Act (Cap. 300) with this current provision. One of the few things that I noted that are going to be very consequential in terms of this particular amendment is the change in the composition of the land board committees at the constituency level. Every time there has been any need for a change, those particular committees have been met with a lot of bureaucracies. I am particularly impressed by the inclusion of members of the private sector, not necessarily the appointees of Government, in the appointment to those particular committees. I am also very impressed with the new role in this amendment in giving the land control committees at the constituency level the power to investigate any matters relating to fraud or any misallocation of land to individuals who may not be the ones that should be accorded that land. If you look at the data from our law courts, especially the land court, the number of cases involving matters of land is immense. Many court processes are used to try to cure and resolve those land matters. Most of the time, those courts are disadvantaged in terms of their access to information, considering most of those parcels of land in this country do not have valid title deeds. An honourable court has to dig into the family history and find out who had the first letter of allotment, and to whom the transfer was made of those letters of allotment because the only valid document most people have in their possession of land is a sale agreement. Some of those sale agreements are so old that they were handwritten, and appending the signature was by way of fingerprints, as it were for most of the informally uneducated parents. Therefore, when the honourable courts try to investigate those particular matters and give justice to the owners of those particular lands, they face all those challenges administratively. With those committees at the constituency level being given the extra duty to investigate and determine those specific cases of fraud, they will be able to trace the history. If you go to a particular village or community of a particular town and ask the residents of that town, including our villagers and the nyumba kumi committee members, they will give you a proper history of how that land changed hands from so and so, to so and so. However, that particular evidence is not usually available in a way that is palatable to a judicial system. Thus, this particular change in the combination of those particular committees is crucial to ensure a fastened solution to the conflict in terms of land in our Republic."},{"id":1494183,"url":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1494183/?format=json","text_counter":620,"type":"speech","speaker_name":"Molo, UDA","speaker_title":"Hon. Kuria Kimani","speaker":null,"content":"Most importantly, those committees are given the responsibility of safeguarding public utilities across the country. One of the abuses is the stealing of public utilities. You will find in a particular village or ward that there is always land that is allocated for the construction of a school or a dispensary. With time, the trend in our villages is that young people move to town and the older people are left in the village. When the older people pass on, those who are left behind take advantage, sub divide that land and sell it. When you try to find out what land was available as a public utility in that area, you find people have already processed documentation, 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."},{"id":1494184,"url":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1494184/?format=json","text_counter":621,"type":"speech","speaker_name":"Molo, UDA","speaker_title":"Hon. Kuria Kimani","speaker":null,"content":"either fraudulently, and acquired title deeds or sale agreements for land that is purely meant for the use of the public."},{"id":1494185,"url":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1494185/?format=json","text_counter":622,"type":"speech","speaker_name":"Molo, UDA","speaker_title":"Hon. Kuria Kimani","speaker":null,"content":"For example, Hon. Temporary Speaker, in Molo Town, we have two very interesting cases where a court case has been going on for the last 20 years. One case is of someone who owns a piece of land inside a police station and lives inside there, while the other case is about one who is living in a school. We also have another one that has land in the middle of a church compound and possesses valid title deeds on that particular parcel. Those cases have dragged on in court because of the unavailability of an alternative solution to that conflict. If those land committees at the constituency level were given that mandate or jurisdiction, those would be some of the cases that would be fast-tracked."},{"id":1494186,"url":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1494186/?format=json","text_counter":623,"type":"speech","speaker_name":"Molo, UDA","speaker_title":"Hon. Kuria Kimani","speaker":null,"content":"The Bill also proposes to digitise title deeds across the country. Digitisation is the way to go. I like the words of my colleague, Hon. KJ, who keeps telling us that it is no longer finance; it is fintech. It is no longer education; it is edu-tech. It is no longer medical; it is medi- tech because we are moving everything that exists to the digital space. All the services that you need and that are available to mankind are technology-based. That is why even this House has had to adopt other technological means when it is receiving views from the public or how we conduct our meetings. Therefore, the digitisation of title deeds, if my memory serves me correctly, started when Hon. Ngilu was the Minister for Lands. It is interesting that since Hon. Charity Ngilu was the Minister for Lands, the process of digitisation of title deeds has never been fulfilled. When such a process takes so long, your guess is as good as mine. There could be some technical officers somewhere who do not want to see the digitisation of that particular process. If we can digitise our vehicles… For instance, if you notice any vehicle on the road, just by the click of a button on a system by the use of an Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) code on the phone, you can tell who owns that particular vehicle. You are able to tell a child by their birth certificate when you search for it and see who that person is. If you are searching through an Identity Card (ID) or through all the other cards that we have, including"},{"id":1494187,"url":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1494187/?format=json","text_counter":624,"type":"scene","speaker_name":"","speaker_title":"","speaker":null,"content":"Maisha"},{"id":1494188,"url":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1494188/?format=json","text_counter":625,"type":"speech","speaker_name":"Molo, UDA","speaker_title":"Hon. Kuria Kimani","speaker":null,"content":"Number, it is possible to digitise all our title deeds. Once we are able to digitise those title deeds, we will unlock great potential, including access to credit. We have many people, especially in the village, whose only collateral they can use to access credit is a title deed. So, when you do not avail that title deed to those people, we deny them economic progress. As I wind up, in economics, the four factors of production are land, entrepreneurship, capital and labour. All of those cannot function without land. If you take capital, for example, that capital investment, apart from the coming of digital technology where you can put that capital in a technology and host it in space, that labour must live. The mobility of labour is dependent on infrastructure, which is developed on land. Those people who drive that factor of production called labour must live. One link that links all the three other factors of production is land. We need to make sure that land lives to its potential in ensuring that there is economic development by ensuring mobility of that land. Because land will not physically move, we can only ensure that we facilitate ease of transfer of land from one entity to another and, where possible, and even that charging when you want to access credit. Lastly, Hon. Temporary Speaker, with the coming of securitisation, we have technologies that, through securitisation, we can have an investor across the globe using digital technology and be part of a coffee farm in Meru or a tea farm in Thika or be part of a potato farm in Molo. That securitisation can only be done if we digitalise our title deeds across the country. With that, I beg to support."},{"id":1494189,"url":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1494189/?format=json","text_counter":626,"type":"speech","speaker_name":"Hon. Peter Kaluma","speaker_title":"The Temporary Speaker","speaker":{"id":1565,"legal_name":"George Peter Opondo Kaluma","slug":"george-peter-opondo-kaluma"},"content":" Thank you very much. Hon. Rindikiri Mugambi, do you want to contribute to this? 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."},{"id":1494190,"url":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1494190/?format=json","text_counter":627,"type":"speech","speaker_name":"Buuri, UDA","speaker_title":"Hon. Mugambi Rindikiri","speaker":null,"content":" Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker. As articulated by our Chairman, matters of land in our country are very emotive. We have had many challenges in the management of land in this country. We have so much land and yet, many conflicts are associated with it. This Bill addresses matters of land arbitration. Land control boards are very essential for land matters in the village. I am glad that those boards are being given an opportunity to investigate certain matters relating to land. My constituency is among the three rural constituencies with a large number of slums. We have slums in Timau Town in an area called Machaka. We also have areas that require land adjudication, where people are given numbers and allotment letters. They now need to be given title deeds. The transfer or consolidation of those parcels of land can create a lot of discontent among the people who want to inherit that land. I am aware that many conflicts arise because of land inheritance. We have seen situations where widows are disadvantaged when it comes to land matters, particularly in the transfer of land. We have seen orphans being mistreated and, sometimes, those matters are not handled properly. If I am able to go to court and present my matter, I carry the day. Currently, I know of three families who are fighting for their small pieces of land, but there is nobody with the power to deal with the matter on their behalf. Hon. Temporary Speaker, this Bill has come at the right time because, as other Members have said, those boards have the power to investigate a matter when it goes to court. The boards are constituted of people of independent minds and various professions. We need to support this Bill. As other Members have said, there is a lot of public land. Who protects that land? That is the biggest question. I know of an area where the cemetery land has been grabbed in my constituency. That is how bad land matters are. It is not just where we come from; it is all over the country. Why is that the case? It is because there are no proper records. I know of a school in my constituency called Sirimon Mixed Day Secondary School, where six title deeds were issued for the school land. I know of a lady who has been told to move out of the land she has occupied since 1986. I know of a church in my constituency, the African Independent Pentecostal Church of Africa (AIPCA), whose land has been grabbed. If we have land control boards that are empowered by the law, we will be able to safeguard the rightful ownership of those lands. I am very concerned about land inheritance. On many occasions, when one takes their case to the land control boards, they can manipulate the outcome. Now that you can just walk into the Survey of Kenya or the land registries in many counties, you can manufacture your own title deed, the deed plan, or even the map of the area. When those matters are presented to a land control board with the mandate to investigate, arbitrate, and recommend prosecutorial actions, we all need to support this Bill. There are many slums in my constituency, including Riverside, Kailili, Kwa Joshua and Machaka. Many of those disputes cannot be handled by the courts. This is because there are slums where the home sizes are 30 metres by 40 metres or 40 metres by 50 metres. Those people have lived together for a long time. A capable person like Rindikiri will go there and say that, that land belongs to them. Who is supposed to investigate that? Who will arbitrate on that? In many cases, they go to the chiefs or the local deputy county commissioner (DCC). However, the local DCC is most likely unaware or has no information about that land. I believe a land control board with the power to investigate and make recommendations is the way to go. I support this Bill. This is the way to go. Land is becoming scarce in this country. The scarcer the land becomes, the more the cases require a lot of investigation, adjudication, arbitration and dispute resolution. I urge Members to support this very important Bill and implement it as soon as possible. Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker. 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."},{"id":1494191,"url":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1494191/?format=json","text_counter":628,"type":"speech","speaker_name":"Hon. Peter Kaluma","speaker_title":"The Temporary Speaker","speaker":{"id":1565,"legal_name":"George Peter Opondo Kaluma","slug":"george-peter-opondo-kaluma"},"content":" Next is Hon. Francis Sigei, Member for Sotik."}]}