What new government should address first at Coast

The land question has been a recurring issue over decades and can be traced back to Kenya’s colonial era at the former coast province. The land question has continued to stagnate development, set negative ethnicity, create squatters and reemphasize the need to address the historical land injustices. President Uhuru Kenyatta is expected to tackle the land issue in the Coastal region head on especially when the perpetrators of land injustice are prominent businessmen, politicians, foreigners and their companies.

According to the Njonjo Land Commission of 2004, land issues in Kenya are a ticking time bomb. Adjudication and resettlement inequalities in regards to land distribution are a regional problem, which the Coast people feel was committed with ill motive by the past governments. There are still large numbers of unregistered landowners and dubbed squatters to this day.

The Crown Land Ordinance of 1902, which was revised in 1915, declared the entire Kenyan territory as crown land under the control of the British Crown. With this, the indigenous communities and minorities were left to provide a lame justification for the colonial government actions to process the presumed vacant land. The Ordinance Act of 1915 gave and provided for the sale and lease of the indigenous communities land to exploiters and government agencies that took away the land from the poor and indigenous.

There was a high level of illiteracy and ignorance by the local indigenous people during the colonial period that made them easily exploitable. The elite, who were mainly Arabs, Indians and white settlers, lodged and took advantage of the clan for a period of 6 months to make land claims to become legal owners with title deeds under the Act. This was a serious resentment to the native people.

Another rising issue is that of absentee landlords and the monthly ground rent saga especially around the Majengo, Mvite and Kisauni areas. Residents have been paying ground monthly rate to unknown physical or documentary absentee landlords who collect the monies through agents and relatives. Absentee land term should be addressed and defined in meaning e.g. in use, documentation or physically. People occupying land belonging to the absentee landlords cannot develop these areas because they are not certain of their tenure in any form. It could be illegal, who knows? The Jubilee Government should put up a legal framework to ensure the protection of the tenant-at-will who is paying ground rent, allocation of land and the security of tenure. In the case where the owner is physical and illegally present, then the government should fundraise to buy the land then recover the same from the tenant-at-will house owner. It should also strive to hold a dialogue between the house owners and the landlords.

Public land should be protected and redistributed to the landless e.g. through the full execution of the Ndungu Report recommendations. The Ndungu Report captures land issues up to 2004, hence it further needs to address the period from 2005 to the present which I believe is even worse as the ongoing land grabbing activities in urban centers has extended to County Council centers e.g. In Kwale, Kilifi and Lamu. Land grabbing is stealing and should therefore be classified as a crime.

Land used for cemeteries, playing fields, fishing etc. should be protected as public utility. Development controls should also be addressed and updated by setting up new master plans for every urban city. These master plans should adjust to the population pressure and develop different zones e.g. commercial areas, residential areas and urban agricultural areas. Town planning also needs to be addressed in these master plans. We do not need airports in the middle of the town as is with Malindi Airport or residential houses right next to the airport fence e.g. in Mombasa International Airport.

Land acquired illegally or idle land that was used as a security for an unpaid loan and has not been claimed for years through collapsed banks or institutions should be repossesed. It should repossess and stop institutional or parastatal lands from being disposed by their management e.g. fishing land, Kenya Ports Authority land, Kenya Railway land etc. These institutions will therefore stay focused on their core value of rendering services according to their mandate and withdraw from the business of selling land.

Land issues related to mining should be looked into e.g. land becomes useless after mining is completed, as there is no plan for reuse. An example of mined land restoration is Haller Park, which was rehabilitated with a successful tree-planting effort, which now includes fish breeding and the establishment of a wildlife park.
Furthermore, the government needs to ensure that the indigenous people, who own this mining land, benefit from the mining activities.

Human-wildlife conflict needs addressing too. It is important to create awareness to the local people in regards to the fences that have been put up and elaborate on why they are there e.g. to prevent wild animals from straying. Further, boundary disputes between counties need a greater depth of addressing; majorly the Mtito Andei land allocation between Taita and Machakos County.

Foreign landowners need to be controlled and verified. For example, foreign governments and companies have taken huge parcels of land in Tana and Kwale for food export, Jatropha bio fuel etc. This should not be done at the expense of displacing people from the productive areas. There needs to be harmonization between these foreign investors and the local wananchi who live there. There should be a clear guideline, taking into consideration the interest of communities who live around. The group ranges that were meant for nature should be left without any interference and exploitation from Ministry of land in managing the ranges.

The new government should stop allocating huge traits of land in Lamu for speculative purposes due to the ongoing LAPSET (Lamu Port South Sudan-Ethiopia Transport) project. President Kenyatta should protect and facilitate the security of tenure for minorities and those vulnerable e.g. the Boni, Wasonye, Walangulo in Lamu and Tana River.

The government should have a good productive plan for the wetlands and irrigation of the Tana River area. The ecology and environmental aspects also needs to be protected.

The Uhuru government needs to ensure that the National Land Policy and new land laws in regard to Chapter 5 of the Constitution are timely and fully implemented. Furthermore, all lands should be registered as required by the new land reforms.

In terms of budget allocations, the government should give its full support to the National Lands Commission, the devolved County Land Management Board and the Community Land Management Board. The government should embark on running a civil education program on their roles. Plans and management of the growth of informal settlement in urban areas should be addressed too.

Evictions should be stopped: illegal or not as the Eviction and Resettlement Bill is yet to be passed by Parliament. If evictions are necessary due to unavoidable circumstances, then the eviction should be humanely guided by the international standard.

Land injustices in relation to the ethnic clashes and the rise of radical groups as people take advantage of the poverty level to exploit the youth should be looked into.

The Uhuru-led government should release the inter-ministerial task force recommendation of 2006 that took an inventory of the genuine squatters and landowners of the 10-mile coastal strip. Settlement schemes for intended or deserving beneficiaries should be audited by putting up an embargo not to sell the land until a given period,a ceiling period. For instance, the embargo in the Mwembe Legeza settlement scheme in Kisauni. Beach and fishing land should be accessible and free to all. This riparian land can be used e.g. for beach use and even security vigilance.

In conclusion, the public has to be vigilant and push for the implementation of the constitution, the new land laws and regulations on the land reforms. The Coast community has an obligation and a role to play. The political leaders have displayed laxity in land reforms implementation hence wananchi need to push the process by taking stock of the process. In order to move forward, there is great emphasis accorded to the government to ensure institutional responsibility, civic education and continued media engagement.