National constitutional conference
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Hon. Delegate. Hubbie Hussein Al-Haji: Thank you Mr. Chairman and Honourable Delegates. I would like to contribute to this issue of land because I believe it is the most essential thing in our lives. Without land no life. I do come from North Eastern and for that reason I live in a Trust Land, which has been abused so much. The British Policy as Professor Ogendo told us this morning says that land in Africa is ownerless, but at the same time the same British went to North Eastern and demarcated the land into grazing blocks and the grazing blocks were given to clans. If Clan A went to the grazing block of Clan B there used to be fights now that was reflected in terms of conflicts. Every drought season we have conflicts because that precedent set by the British Government is being reflected by the communities in terms of clashes that “you came to my land without permission and you are grazing.” The issue of Article 326, as my brother says the state has the powers to take possession of land to acquire any rights. Sometimes I thank the shiftas because there is no Province in Kenya where the land has not been misused for the purpose of resettlement scheme like Lamu, Mpeketoni District land has been misused. The Government has taken that land and the mpeketoni people are not benefiting. The people taken from Central Province are benefiting from that land and for that reason I would like to have that Act reviewed or rewarded. The other issue which I want to talk about is that Government Officers who are rejected in other places because they are corrupt, useless and unproductive are taken to North Eastern Province and they abuse land. In physical planning, surveyors have been selling our land, the displaced community has nowhere to settle in Garrisa and especially in urban areas. They are taken to the peripheries where there is no water, resources and no schools. This should be reviewed in the Draft. The other issue is that grazing blocks in North Eastern Province have been conserved for wild life, parks and our livestock are grazing in tse tse fly invested areas. There are many diseases in those areas, tripanosomiasis and other diseases are taking our animals, we have no way to address that. Therefore the Review Commission should address that issue. Financial Institutions in Kenya have been abused by fake Title Deeds that people use for borrowing money. Therefore, that issue of Title Deeds being used for borrowing money should also be stopped. The other issue that I want to talk about is the three-mile strip in the North Eastern Province, which was done through an Act of Parliament in 1968. That three mile strip is a very important resource from Tana River and therefore we have a problem in watering our animals, in getting access to water and although I know there is a Land Commission, something should be done in this draft to address such issues. Thank you very much. Hon. Delegate Norman Nyaga: Thank you Honourable Delegate for your contributions. We now move on to section one and I want to move away from the category of MPs and that of of Districts, to others and I want to recoganize religious sector, Delegate number 541. Hon. Delegate Okoth, Zacchaeus: My name is Arch Bishop Zacchaeus Okoth, KC. (Kenya Catholic Secretariat Religious Organization). My first point is on land belonging to communities. Land clashes should be a thing of the past, we have learnt that around Muhoroni there is an area where people were removed from. Our church had to settle some of them, first, with plastic bags and paper bags, then we bought land and built for them huts. The piece of the land they have now is so small that although their sons are ready to get married and settle and they have no land they are living on top of one another. It is a shame that this kind of spirit will continue. We are saying that the land which these people were dispossessed is still there, it is not being utilized. It is their ancestral land, they have been there from time in memorial and they should be resettled back. I think that is the truth as these people have the right to live and they cannot be squatters, and made sugarcane cutters all their lives. Number two. Land should also be accepted as belonging to the communities whether these communities are in the urban or in the rural areas. These lands should be respected once they prove that they are the owners from their ancestors. This should be given priority because there is land with three or four Title Deeds and which have endless disputes among those who have the Title Deeds for that land. I want to emphasize that, where land is not given to women, women should be given land so that when their husbands die, they have a right to own the land and even if they are three/four/five of them, let them share the piece of land that they have. The other aspect is that in reality the settled lands are unproductive. It is the duty of Kenyans to make land productive. If you go to Israel, land is made productive; in Netherlands they have acquired land from the sea. We have plenty of water in the lakes and seas; we should be able to irrigate our lands to make it more productive. The lands should be made in such a way that people can get their livelihoods from there. Even if they only grow trees, paw paws or even vegetables. I think that land should not be looked upon as purely ownership of tracks of land but make them productive so that Kenyans can also live and share the land which is theirs. If oil can come from Mombasa to Kisumu, then there should also be pipes of water coming from the Indian Ocean to Mandera all the way through to Marsbit, or even water from Lake Victoria coming back to the dry areas of Nyanza and elsewhere even as far as Baringo and other areas. I think that we should also irrigate the land. Thank you very much Mr. Chairman. I am brief and short. Hon. Delegate Norman Nyaga: Thank you Honourable Delegate Okoth. I now recognize Delegate 368. Hon. Delegate Joel Kipyegon Sang: Thank you Mr. Chairman. I am very happy indeed to have been given this opportunity. I had wanted to speak on the topic of Devolution but I have been- -. An. Hon. Delegate: On a point of order. Hon. Delegate Norman Nyaga: Yes, Delegate 539. Hon. Delegate Njenga John: I hope it is a point of order Mr. Chairman, but it is a concern because you remember that when the Anti-corruption unit began its work, quite a number of offices of the police went into its books, and even when the Goldenburg inquiry began, some files also became invisible. This matter that we are talking about here of land, I think it is very, very sensitive and I was just wondering if their is a way the land-- You know what I mean, they should be properly kept in a secure office. This is a very serious team that is here and the records can go yet people are hearing these. Those who own thousands and thousands of acres are hearing these. Might it not be the case for the Commission to help us to make sure that those files all of them are secured until further notice. Clapping by the Honourable Delegates. Hon. Delegate Norman Nyaga: Thank you very much. Go on, number 368. Hon. Delegate Joel Kipyegon Sang: Thank you very much Honourable Chairman. The issue of land in this country is potentially explosive and the Chapter on land specifically in this Draft is badly done. Badly done, because I think the Commission was taking into consideration the Njonjo Commission, failing to realise that this Conference has a bigger mandate and has the potential as Professor Okoth Ogendo will put it, of reconstituting the Kenyan state and that is exactly what we are doing. Land is part of the nature of colonial question in this country. As we talk now, the issue of land has ramification beyond our borders. The British colonial Government introduced this issue of expropriating or taking away native land as a way of deteriorating the indigenous communities, appropriating themselves the power to control the primary resource in Kenya. In this, a lot of injustices have been done and I am going to say here and today that, the legality of the Constitution we all making here, shall be determined by the extent to which we address the land question. That we have to make another Constitution within 40 years is not something to be proud of. It shows that the founding fathers of the Kenyan Republic did not take some of the pertinent questions seriously. Kenyans fought the British primarily because of land many Kenyans died because of land and yet the British outwitted our nationalists in Lancaster. I am bringing to your information that during the Lancaster Conference, Kenyatta was told “Could you delay the independence for ten years so that we can fully deal with the land question to the satisfaction of all parties in Kenya”. Kenyatta said “I am very old, I may not sit on that seat, I want to be the President and you are delaying independence for ten years, I am sure that I am going to live to be a President”. That thing has already planted the seeds of instability within our society, whereby every other day we have to make a Constitution and I am calling upon the Delegates not ignore the question of historical land injustices. We may not be able to dispossess those Kenyans who have been settled in the land that formerly belonged to other Kenyans, but we can at least we can sit down and say that this was a mistake, it was done but we can dispossess these Kenyans who are living here, we will compensate those communities and there are many ways of doing it. We cannot ignore a vestige question and hope to remain stable there after. I am saying this because in 1902 there was what is was known as Crown Land Act and in 1915, the British monarch took away African Land and gave it to Multinationals. Those multinationals own that land to date. I remember in Thika there was a time a Kikuyu trespassed through one of the farms and dogs were set after him just because he had trespassed through a white property that was taken by the Colonialists. Land is part of the large colonial question and I think even Macmillan in 1960 at Cape Town, when he talked of wind of change, did mean that that the British had changed the Acts. It was only that they changed their tactics in approaching the colonial question. I think colonialism is coming back in a big way through globalization and unless we empower our people by returning part of the stolen land, we will not have dealt with the culture that settled in this country in 1985. It is on the basis of this that I say it is meaningless for Kenyans to say that we are independent and yet the basic question that keeps destabilizing our society is not addressed. Land is very important. Today, families are struggling to make sure that their heads do not sale land without consulting the rest of the families. Communities are helpless and poor. I come from the larger Kericho District, we are looking at very beautiful farms and yet we have families scattered in Transmara who were dispossessed off that land, they have nowhere to stay and we are still silent. Who will cry for those people? Who will give them what is theirs? It is now time to tell them they can cultivate the farms, but the soil is ours. It should be given to us. The loyalties that they are paying to Queen Elizabeth should be paid to the Kenyan communities; the Kikuyus in Kiambu and Murang’a; The Kipsigis in Kericho, the Nandis in Nandi, the Taita and the Tugeni in the Sisal farms. We cannot have multinationals taking away our birth rights. These are some of the fundamental questions that if not addressed in this Conference, will make us go for another Constitution in ten years. Kenyans are becoming more enlightened. Kimathi would turn in his grave if he got to know how we have distributed land in this country. Koitalel arap Samoei was killed because of land. The whole (inaudible) of the Kispsigis Arap Ole (inaudible) was punished with the entire clan to Gwasi in Luo land because they challenged the British Land interests and their occupation on our land. Unless we address these issues, our independence is meaningless. The stability of the Kenyan State shall always be brought to question because you cannot explain anything to a dispossessed young man who has a degree and no job, who looks at his ancestral land lying in the hands of a foreign multinational and yet he has no clothes or shoes. These are some of things that we must address, and we have no other time in our lives to get our people on some parts of countryside, we are not addressing these issues seriously. The Lease of land. Our people have spoken; I am fortunate to be one of the people who were involved in the district hearings and the collection of views. I heard a lot, I was the translator in Buret district and part of Bomet District. Many Kenyans want the lease period for rural land to come back to either 30 or 33 years, so that who ever leases land shall see it in his/her life time. For urban land, it can be 66 years but one of the basic rules should be that no foreigner should ever own land in this country. To conclude, this morning Professor Okoth Ogendo talked about subterranean wealth. In Europe I cannot imagine an African going to start anything that cannot benefit the local community. It is impossible. It is only in Kenya where foreigners come and mine, kill Kenyans and there is no benefit to the local community. Subterranean wealth does not belong to the Government; it belongs to the people of Kenya. The Government is an agent of the people. If you allow an agent to own some property, it would amount to theft by servant. It belongs to the Kenyan people. There is a lot to be said but everybody has to talk. Thank you very much Mr. Chairman. Hon. Delegate. Norman Nyaga: Thank you. You have been a wonderful speaker. I think before we wind up, I would like to hand over the Chair back to the Vice Chair, but I want to say that you have been a wonderful group to spend the day with and we look forward to being with you once again tomorrow. In the mean time, I hand over the microphone. Hon. Delegate Wilfred Ole Kina: Thank you very much. I do not think that I have much to say except that we adjourn this session to continue tomorrow. Have a good night. Thank you very much. The Meeting adjourned at 5.35 pm. &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Page of Last printed 5/30/2003 11:23 a5/p5 |