By Dominic Leparmarai
Legal Adviser SEDF
THE TRUTH BEHIND LAND ISSUE IN THE DRAFT CONSTITUTION.
The question of land may be the most emotive issue in the draft constitution and the one being exploited by land grabbers to woe non- suspecting Kenyans to vote against draft constitution. I would like to bring to attention of our readers in this forum the truths why many of these politicians are doing everything to block draft constitution from being passed.
I peruse for the umpteenth time Mr. Paul Ndung’u’s report that offers proposals for the repossession of public land. The Bomas constitution and national land policy drafts give us similar guidelines for implementation. Draft constitution has borrowed heavily from these documents. Mr. Orengo has tabled the policy at a Cabinet meeting recently which also reflects the wishes Kenyans have expressed for long time on the land issue.
I compare the Ndung’u report with the Cabinet list and find that quite a large percentage of names appear on both lists. Some of these individuals are listed in volume 11 of the Ndung’u Commission report (pages 593 to 620). Here in lies the connection between the Catholic Church, Moi, Jirongo and other land elites who are opposed to the proposed constitution and change in Kenya. They want to maintain the status quo. No one cares about the kadhi courts or abortion. Moi ruled this country for 24 years with kadhi courts and abortions in practice.
To give a picture of what many don’t know I would like you to give a look at some cases here and judge for yourself the situation we are talking about. Look at these examples:
One minister bought a Kenya Railways plot in January 1996 for Sh77 million and sold it to the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) for Sh178 millions a week later. Quite a week’s “work”.
Another “owns” part of State Lodge land in Malindi, while a third has a few hundred acres in an ADC farm. I don’t need to elaborate they are already in public knowledge who they are. Get the point? The draft constitution will need divine intervention — perhaps a miracle — to get nod of approval from such people.
If you want some of that translated into monetary terms, just read “Unjust Enrichment”, published by the Kenya Land Alliance and the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights. It shows that Kenyans were unjustly deprived of Sh53 billion through the grabbing of public land in three forests, parastatals and protected areas. The figure does not include ministries’ land, settlement schemes, trust land, game reserves and forests. We are no longer talking about billions but land pilfered to the tune of trillions of shillings.
If you think it is exaggerated, do your own calculation on the price of 200,000 fraudulent title deeds that correspond to more than two million acres as per Ministry of Land. This grand robbery makes Anglo-Leasing, Grand Regency and Goldenberg look like petty theft. It is then worthy to know here that these opponents of draft Constitution are toiling and moiling to safe guard these 200,000 fraudulent title deeds. It has nothing to do with land acreage, Community Land or transfer of Land ownership from one group to another. It is all about retaining status quo!
We are going to publish three series of Articles on the land in the draft constitution whereby we are going to deal with:
I-why they say ‘NO’ on draft on Land issue (THE TRUTH BEHIND LAND ISSUE IN THE DRAFT CONSTITUTION.)
II- Land categories in the draft: the Community and Trust Lands
III-Land ownership: current 999 years lease, Land acreage, Land transfer from one category to another, Tax on land.
