From: Ouko joachim omolo
Voices of Justice for Peace
Regional News
BY FR JOACHIM OMOLO OUKO, AJ
NAIROBI-KENYA
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2012
Squatters at the Coast have threatened to boycott the forthcoming general elections if they are not resettled before then. The threats come at the time the Ipsos Synovate poll says Deputy Prime Ministers Uhuru Kenyatta and Musalia Mudavadi would both defeat the Prime Minister Raila Odinga in the event that the country fails to get an outright winner in the first round of the elections set for March 4 next year. Uhuru family owns a big chunk of land at the Coast believed to would have been grabbed by his father when he was the president.
Statistics from the Ministry of Lands show that over 130,000 families of squatters are identified and registered in the province with Mombasa having more than 50,000, Kwale-25,000, Lamu 4000, Kilifi-26,000, Tana River-1,500 and Malindi 22,000. The statistic does not indicate those of Kwale and Taita Taveta – with a total of 80, 000 hectares of land belonging to absentee landlords in the region.
According to the Ministry of Lands records, absentee landlords own more than 77, 800 hectares of land whilst the ten mile coastal strip total land area is documented as 80, 000 consisting of 1128 parcels.
The worst hit county is Kilifi where they own more than 75, 000ha, Kilifi 1, 300ha, Malindi 235ha, Mombasa 400ha, while Lamu, River and Taita Taveta are still un-specified, though most is reportedly government land.
Coast province squatter problem is a major thorny and highly sensitive issue of historical injustices that continues to fester until today whose history goes to as far back as the days of the slave trade and the Arabic sultans who colonized the coastal region as well as the Indian Ocean Islands like Zanzibar and in the process grabbed land from the indigenous communities for themselves – especially the so called ten mile coastal strip.
The report of the Ndung’u-led Commission on Land in Kenya does not only cite the region as one where prominent political families, who mostly live upcountry, own most of the prime land, it also shows how difficult it will be to reclaim these potions of land.
It is very sensitive that Chief Justice Willy Mutunga will find it very tough to resolve, despite the warning that land grabbers and looters of public property that the Judiciary would spearhead efforts to recover them.
Dr Mutunga has called for surrender of ill-gotten property, failure to which the consequences of not doing so will be severe. It explains why, even though he has appealed to all those who are holding public property to return it for the intended use, none of them has surrendered.
It also explains why President Kibaki has not acted on the recommendations by Ndungu report that he should act on people implicated on land grabbing. This is despite the fact that the law, like the Mazrui Land Trust Act of 1914 continues to pose legal challenges in courts today, preventing the Government from addressing some historical injustices.
Even Land Minister, Mr James Orengo cannot manage to tackle the issue of grabbed lands, despite the fact that land issues at the Coast would be addressed under the new constitution and the National Land Policy.
The Government was expected to start implementing the Ndung’u report on irregular land allocation immediately it presented the report to the president, which according to Orengo does not need consultation with Prime Minister Raila Odinga and President Mwai Kibaki or form another commission to implement it.
Orengo had promise to take action on the Ndung’u report, adding that those who were allocated public land with impunity will have themselves to blame. He promised that those who benefited from irregular land allocations could face prosecution.
According to land reform, in order to do this the Government would have to purchase land from private individuals and multinationals that own large tracts of arable land and create new settlement schemes.
It must ensure land resources are used to help the poor. Where in the past sale of land took place between willing buyer, willing seller, there can be no justifiable excuse for the latter to evict the seller.
The Ndungu Report which investigated Land grabbing in the past, adversely named over 100 MP’s sitting on both sides of the House in the last Parliament. Most are still political ‘Big Wigs’ in the current standoff.
Fr Joachim Omolo Ouko, AJ
People for Peace in Africa
Tel +254-7350-14559/+254-722-623-578
E-mail omolo.ouko@gmail.com
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